Percy Jackson and the Nine Realms
by Neil Martin
Summary: Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson wakes up with only one memory- his name. As he travels across the United States in the company of Thalia and Luke, they discover that they are tied to a prophecy involving something far older than the Olympians, Titans, and Giants themselves, and that the Greeks and Romans aren't the only gods around. Alternate universe.
1. A Single Memory

**Percy**

"I'm seriously starting to think he's dead at this point."

"Shut up, Luke. You don't know that for sure… even if he has been asleep for, what, like three or four days?"

"Either that or _dead _for three or four days. Face it, Thalia. The kid's probably dead."

I felt a slight pressure on my chest.

"No, I can hear his heart beating. He's definitely alive."

I shook my head. Slowly at first, and then slightly picked up speed. I extended my fingers and toes, almost as if it had been my first time riding a bike in years. Rusty at first, but then it came naturally. I sat up and opened my eyes.

There were two others to my right, glowing in the light of a kerosene lamp. A tall kid with sandy hair and tan complexion sat next to a girl who was probably the same age, maybe twelve or thirteen, a white scar running from his right temple to his jaw. The girl was… well, she was different. Her black hair came just a few inches above her shoulder and was spiked around the back of her head. Straight bangs were swept to the right. Black eyeliner surrounded electric blue eyes, staring at me, unblinking. Her nose was splotched with a few barely noticeable freckles. She wore a black leather jacket that partially obscured a dark shirt that had the letters _AFI _printed in white letters. Her black jeans had holes ripped in them, but it didn't look like they were bought that way.

The blond kid sighed. "I guess I owe you ten bucks... that I should have sometime soon."

The girl grinned at him. "I intend to hold you to that." She turned to me. "So what's your name, kid?"

I shook my head again, racking my mind for any answers. Finally, a few popped up. "My name's… my name is Percy Jackson. I'm twelve… I think."

The blond kid nodded, as if that was all he needed to know. He offered me a hand, which I accepted gratefully. "The name's Luke." He pointed to the girl. "She's Thalia."

Thalia nodded.

I got a good look at my environment for the first time. The walls looked like they had been put together with plants, but it looked as sturdy as any house. Three sleeping bags and a small pile of blankets were set up on the floor. In the corner was a cooler and a small pile of assorted snacks. Opposite of that corner were swords, bows, quivers full of arrows, and what I had figured were javelins. What were those doing here?

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Chesapeake Bay in Virginia," answered Thalia.

"So what's going on? Why can't I remember anything?"

Thalia and Luke exchanged glances, an understanding passing between them.

"We… don't know why," said Luke. "We just found you passed out in the woods and brought you back here to our safe house until we were sure you were all right. We probably would have sent you on your way already if you weren't one of us."

"What do you mean, 'one of us'?"

Again, Luke and Thalia glanced at one another.

Thalia stepped forward slightly. "You're… _different, _Percy."

I screwed up my face. "Different how?"

"Do you remember anything?" said Luke.

I shook my head. "Just my name. It's almost like I can remember something, but right as I'm about to remember, it just sort of runs off and I forget."

"Percy, do you know about the Greek myths?"

I vaguely remembered watching _Clash of the Titans _and _Jason and the Argonauts _in school, but I couldn't pinpoint when. "Do you mean like the Harryhausen movies?"

"Eh, sort of. Actually, you know what, let's use _Clash of the Titans _as an example. Do you remember in the movie when Zeus got the King Acrisius's daughter pregnant with… Perseus?"

I nodded once he mentioned my name.

"Huh, weird. Anyways," Luke continued. "Percy, you're just like Perseus, as weird as that sounds."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means…" he sighed as if he had to tell me something the he _really _didn't want to say. Finally, he closed and opened his eyes and said, "It means you're the son of a god."

For some reason, I wasn't as shocked as I thought I would've been. "So… that means that my dad is Zeus?"

Thalia spoke up this time. "There's no _way _you're a son of Zeus. You look nothing like him. As for me, well, my dad is Zeus."

I looked at her strangely. For some reason, she didn't strike me as someone who was a child of the king of the gods. "So what does that make my mom?"

"Your mom is most likely a mortal."

"'Most likely'?"

"Well, there is always the off chance that you're the offspring of two deities, but that is highly unlikely. You would have a bigger chance of winning fifty lotteries in a month than you would of being the child of two Olympians."

"Olympians?"

"It's the name given to the gods. There are twelve Olympians in all, not including Hades. He doesn't count."

"Why not?"

Luke spoke up. "It's… _complicated._ Let's just leave it at that."

"So what are we doing here then?"

"Like we said, Percy, we found you knocked out cold so we brought in hear to nurse you back to health, although I personally didn't think you were going to live."

"You're such the optimist."

Luke shrugged. "I try."

"So now that I'm better, what do we do now?"

Thalia peaked through a couple of the leaves that helped make up the wall of the hideout. "Well, the sun should be rising any minute now. I suppose we'll go as soon as it's light out." She picked up a rugged gray backpack and handed it to me. "We found this on you when you were passed out. We didn't go through it. We wanted to respect your privacy."

"Oh, wow. Thank you, I really appreciate that."

She nodded. "No problem."

Thalia and Luke picked up backpacks of their own as I sifted through the contents of mine. A change of clean clothes, some toiletries, a canteen that I assumed was filled, or at least at some time was, with water, a Ziploc bag full of brown squares, and, nestled away at the very bottom, was a cheap ballpoint pen. For some reason, I was tempted to take it out and uncap it, but I left it where it was.

We slung our bags over our shoulders as Luke opened up a section of the wall that had actually turned out to be a door. Luke gestured for me and Thalia to follow as he exited.

When we emerged outside, the bay stretched out to my left, a river to my right. For some reason, I felt more confident about myself so near to the water. The ocean, or what seemed like part of the ocean, just felt… _right. _I didn't know how else to explain it.

"This way, Percy," Thalia motioned me over to where she and Luke were about to begin going through the woods.

I nodded and jogged to catch up to them.

"If I'm correct," said Luke. "Then Washington D.C. should be about thirty miles this way."

"Yeah, but you're never correct," said Thalia.

Luke feigned shock. "I'm hurt, Thalia. Truly, I am. I mean, it's not like I've, gods forbid, looked at a _map _or anything. There's no _way _I could possibly have any idea as to where we're going or have a rough idea as to-"

Thalia shut him up with a small electrical shock to the shoulder.

"Ow! What the- _Thalia!_"

Thalia lifted up her hands innocently. "What?"

Luke huffed and turned away. "Nothing."

"Oh, _come on. _That was funny. Stop being so stubborn and admit it."

"That wasn't funny. I think you might've left a scar or something there."

"As if that's going to make a difference."

Luke's face suddenly darkened. "If you had idea how-"

"Come on guys, don't do this now," I said.

Luke's expression softened. "Right. I actually forgot that you were here, Percy."

"Geez, thanks."

"I didn't mean it like that. It's just that I've been used to it just being me and Thalia, so it's just kind of weird for there to be a third person with us."

"So where exactly is it that we're going? What are we looking for in D.C.?"

Luke shrugged. "Don't ask me. It was Thalia's idea."

Thalia looked at me as she explained, "I don't know how to explain it, but I just have a feeling that we should be going to Washington."

"Like it's a sign from your dad?"

She nodded. "Exactly. You've had those feelings before too, haven't you… oh, right. Sorry about that."

"Well, it's not like there's really anything we can do to help it."

"Actually, I think we can. Luke?"

Luke turned his head sideways as we continued hiking into the woods. "Yeah?"

"Long Island?"

Luke sighed, shaking his head. "It's way too risky. Besides, from what I've heard, I don't think we want anything to do with that place."

"Luke, those were just monsters telling us that. It's pretty obvious they _don't _want us going there. Because they know that we'll be safe from them."

He stopped walking. Finally, breaking the silence, he said, "Thalia, if we do this and something goes wrong-"

"Nothing's going to go wrong," she insisted. "After D.C., we'll go to Long Island." Thalia had a commanding tone in her voice. And the way that she looked at him with those electric blue eyes…

Luke sighed. "Fine. Fine, after Washington, we can go to Long Island. But only because I want to help Percy," he added.

He crouched down and flipped this backpack over so that it sat in front of him. He rummaged through it for a few seconds before what he was looking for; an old battered copy of an outdated Rand McNally atlas. He placed it gently on the grass and flipped through a few pages before he came to a section labeled "Virginia". He felt around in his backpack, looking for something, until he withdrew it, empty. "Aw, man. I must have dropped my pen all the way back in Richmond. I didn't realize it's been missing for almost a month."

"Hey, I think I have a pen in my backpack," I said, trying to be helpful. Afterwards, I decided it would be best if I _didn't _try to be helpful.

I reached all the way to the bottom of my back and felt around until my hand closed around the cheap ballpoint pen. Taking it out, I uncapped it and the body of the pen expanded into a leather-wrapped hit, a three foot long bronze blade sprang forward and nearly impaled Thalia.

"Whoa," I let out. "I did _not _see that coming."

"Percy, where did you get that?" asked Thalia while she was observing the sword.

"I don't know. It was just in my backpack. Luke said that he needed a pen so I just figured that this would be a normal one, but _man, _that was so cool."

I had an idea. I picked up the cap that I had dropped on the ground and touched it to the tip of the blade. The sword instantly shrunk down back into its pen form. I stuck it in my pocket with the assumption that the pen didn't actually work as a pen.

"Well, anyways," said Luke. "We're right around here." He pointed to a spot on the map. "So we'll take this way to D.C." He traced a line from the point he held his finger on to the outskirts of Washington. "Once we're there… I don't know what we're going to do. Thalia, I'll give you one, maybe two days, tops, before we're out and on our way to New York."

Thalia nodded. "Seems fair enough." She shook her head, moving the bangs slightly out of her eyes. "So how long do you think it will take us to reach Washington?"

"Well, if we walk all day, we _may _be able to make it about ten miles. So it'll probably take us about three and a half days to get there, at the earliest." He closed the atlas and placed it back into his back. He pulled the backpack up and put it around his shoulders. "If we want to get to D.C. on time, we'll have to-"

There was a rustling in the woods, a low growling sound emanating from a small cluster of trees.

Luke pulled out a bronze knife that I had never seen him carry. Thalia reached into her pocket and pulled out a can of mace. She hit a button and it extended into a spear. She lifted up her left arm and a shield sprung forward. If it was decorated with anything, I couldn't see it from here.

Not wanting to feel left out, I pulled out my pen and uncapped it. "What is it?"

Thalia and Luke were standing back to back while they both urged me over to join them. Thalia glanced at me quickly, and then replied in a low serious tone, "Monsters."

**AN: Between classes, my job, and the time I spend writing my "real" book, I don't know how often I will be able to update as this is my first Fanfic. Please leave reviews containing constructive criticism only! Thank you for reading!**


	2. The Wolf

**Percy**

"So is something you do all the time?" I asked as Thalia gripped her spear tightly, Luke looking in the direction of the rustling. "Fight monsters, I mean."

Thalia nodded. "Yeah, sort of. We try to avoid them whenever we can."

"Could you two be quiet?" Luke snapped in a hushed voice. "We don't know what could be in there."

Suddenly the rustling stopped. We remained absolutely motionless for over a minute. Thalia gasped in surprise as a white rabbit hopped out from behind the trees.

I couldn't help it. I laughed right in her face. Thalia's expression was priceless. "See," I said, walking over to the rabbit. "You were just overreacting-"

Suddenly a large black shadow leapt from the side and grabbed the rabbit by the neck, snapping it. The thing was ten feet long, easily. It stood roughly seven feet tall. Its black shaggy fur was matted with thick globs of mud. The wolf lowered its head and growled menacingly at us, circling, unblinking.

The wolf looked as if it was about to pounce, but it held back, baring its teeth, saliva dripping on the ground in copious amounts.

Thalia kept it at bay with a few short jabs of her spear. "HYAH!"

She stabbed at it once more, but the wolf, catching on to her method, dodged out of the way at the last second, gripped the spear in its teeth, and pulled, forcing Thalia to the ground face first. The wolf bounded forward, piercing Thalia to the ground with a paw. Luke leapt up, dagger at the ready. He made a stabbing motion towards the wolf, but the wolf just shook his head, knocking Luke flat on his back.

The wolf pushed Thalia harder to the ground underfoot, making it more difficult for her to breath. Realizing that I had been standing there doing nothing, I rushed forward, sword at the ready.

The wolf fell for the trick. Instead of using its free arm, it lifted its arm that pinned down Thalia and attempted to swing at me. Anticipating this, I ducked down, rolled, and slashed upwards, barely cutting into the wolf. As I focused on it, I was vaguely aware of Thalia helping Luke up behind me. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Thalia hefting up her shield. The wolf shied away slightly, but it still advanced slowly towards us.

Luke and Thalia played it more cautiously this time, Luke and I huddling together behind Thalia's shield. The wolf shot forward and jumped straight over us, narrowly missing the point of Thalia's spear. We tried to spin around in time, but the monster was too quick. Snarling, swept around and knocked us all on our backs, my sword flying at least ten feet away. Naturally, the wolf came after me first.

It tried hitting me with its paw, almost like a cat and a laser, but I kept rolling to the side. Everyone and a while, he would snap at me and miss by mere inches. My sword glinted in the grass, not six feet away. I tried rolling in that direction, but I was cut off. Finally, mustering all of the strength I could, I jumped up onto my feet and rushed under the wolf. I rolled out of the way just as it tried to sit on me. Recovering from the roll, I scooped up the sword in my right hand and faced the monster.

I stood my ground and slashed up when the wolf was close enough. I got in a good slash on the side of its face but that didn't stop it from wanting to kill me. It bashed me to the side with its head, forcing me down. The wolf leaned over me and was about to make the killing blow when it suddenly went rigid. A confused look crossed its face as it finally came to terms with what just happened. It fell over and slowly turned into a black mist, which was absorbed into the ground. It was as if the wolf had never existed.

Thalia was standing where the wolf had been, spear lowered to her side. In her left hand she held a shield so hideous I immediately turned away, hoping that I wasn't scarred for life.

"Oh, right, sorry," I heard her say.

I took a cautious look back and saw that the shield had disappeared. "What was that?" I asked as she helped me to my feet.

"Oh, what, the shield?"

I nodded.

"It's called Aegis. It used to be Zeus's before he passed it on to me."

"And what was that on the front?"

"That was the head of Medusa. Not the real one, obviously. If it was, you would literally be stone right now."

"How did you get it?"

Thalia's expression turned sad. "It… well, it's a long story. Maybe I'll tell it to you later." She turned to Luke. "And _what _was that? Some sort of hellhound we've never seen before?"

Luke shook his head. "There's no way that was a hellhound. Did you see how it died? Monsters don't die that way. They turn to sand, that's the way it's always been. It was also way smarter than normal hellhounds. Hellhounds are normally really stupid, they just attack. This thing seemed to actually think about its moves before it acted."

"So neither of you have seen that before?" I asked.

"No, never, and I've seen a _lot _of monsters in my time. It could have been Lycaon, but I doubt it. Last I heard, he was in the Fields of Punishment."

"Who's Lycaon?" I remembered a lot about Greek myths, but I couldn't recall the name.

Thalia stepped forward. "Lycaon, who was the king of Arcadia, had fifty sons, all of which were basically spoiled brats on top of being just horrible people. Zeus wanted to test them, to see if they really were as bad as others made them out to be. So he travelled to Arcadia as a peasant. Lycaon suspected this, and in order to see if he really was Zeus, he had one of his own children killed and fed him to Zeus."

"Gross."

"When Zeus found out what Lycaon had done, he killed all of his sons with lightning, brought back the one Lycaon killed to life, and turned his host into a wolf. But if what Luke said is true, there's no way that wolf was Lycaon. He's most likely in Hades, in the Fields of Punishment where he belongs."

"So what would that make the wolf we just killed?"

Thalia collapsed her spear back into a can of Mace. "…We don't know."

I capped my pen, threw it into my pocket, and went to pick up my backpack. The others did the same, Luke placing his dagger carefully into his bag. We all regrouped into a small circle.

"So, are we still headed to D.C.?" I asked.

Luke looked at Thalia. "You still want to go?"

Thalia was about to say something, but hesitated. Finally, she said, "Yes. I think it's a sign from my father. Remember Richmond?"

"Yeah, I also remember how it had also gotten us killed."

I spoke up. "Is that where you got Aegis?"

Thalia nodded slowly. "Okay, Luke, how about this- if there's another creepy old mansion, we'll turn and go straight to New York. Deal?"

Luke sighed. "I still think that it's a really bad, and stupid, idea."

"_Deal?_" Thalia insisted.

Luke sighed again. "Fine. Deal."

**AN: A short chapter, but I'm glad that I was able to get something done quickly, and an action sequence at that too! Although I originally anticipated a long wait time between chapters, I now hope to post new ones every two or three days. So thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.**

**Percy Jackson is owned by Rick Riordan.**


	3. Around the Campfire

**Percy**

"All right, here should be good." Luke motioned Thalia and me over to a small clearing in the woods.

The sun was setting quickly, only the faintest hints of orange tinging the forest, made even darker by the thick canopy overhead.

Luke dug inside his backpack and, after several minutes of searching, produced a matchbook. He quickly arranged a small pile of branches and dry leaves, struck a match, and lit a small, and already dying, fire. Gathering any other sticks and leaves in the immediate area, we dumped whatever we could find onto the fire, making it glow bigger and brighter.

We all situated ourselves by the fire, sleeping bags rolled out. Luke volunteered to take first watch, and neither I nor Thalia argued. I tried to get comfortable, resting my head on the built-in pillow, but it just wasn't cutting it. Thalia was already snoring away softly, her hands holding the can of Mace protectively. Luke was on the other side of the fire, facing away from me and Thalia, his dagger in his hand, sitting on a fallen over tree. I stumbled over to him and planted myself on the trunk.

"Can't sleep." Luke said, cleaning his nails with the knife.

"That's not a question, is it?"

"Did it sound like a question?"

"No, not really."

"Then it wasn't a question. To be perfectly honest, I know exactly how you feel. When I first ran away, I don't think I got any sleep for almost a week."

I asked one of the things that had bugged me the entire day while we were walking through the woods. "Why did you run away, Luke?"

He let out a small gasp of pain as he accidently left a small cut on his finger. Rubbing it, he said, "It's not really something I like to talk about. Neither does Thalia. She basically went through the same things I did. She never told me about it until a few weeks ago, a little after we found the magic goat. And before you ask, it's a long story, so I'm not going to tell you right now."

"Does it have to do with Aegis?"

Luke nodded but didn't elaborate.

"So what's in New York that you don't want anything to do with?"

"It's… a camp. A safe place for people like us."

"You mean there are other's like us? Children of the gods?"

"Oh, yeah, definitely. They're all over, but unless they're someplace safe, like Long Island, they don't live to be very old. Maybe sixteen or seventeen max. Thalia and I are lucky to be alive as long as we have."

Despite cutting accidentally cutting himself, Luke went back to cleaning his nails, probably something to take his mind off of things. I took my pen out of my pocket and uncapped it, elongating into three feet of bronze. "Care to tell me what this is all about?" I asked.

"Not all demigods have a weapon like that. You should consider yourself lucky… given the circumstances."

"Demigods?"

"That's the name for the offspring of gods and mortals. We're also called half-bloods. That's the name of the camp in New York."

"Half-Blood Camp?"

"No, Camp Half-Blood."

"Have you ever been?"

"No, but I've heard stories about it, both good and bad. While I didn't really want to go at first, I think that Thalia has the right idea. If we have any hope of getting your memory back, our best bet is Camp Half-Blood. Besides, I think that it would be nice to sleep at least one night without having to keep one eye open."

I brought our attention back to my weapon. "So why do we use swords instead of, like, I don't know, guns or something like that?"

"Bronze, well, celestial bronze, is the only thing that can kill monsters. It's their only weakness, whereas demigods are vulnerable to both mortal steel and celestial bronze. Although I suppose, in theory, you could melt down celestial bronze into bullet casings, but I don't know how effective it would be. As for me, I'm just going to stick with my dagger until I can upgrade it into something better."

"How much further do we have left until we get to Washington?" I asked suddenly, moving on to a new subject.

"I figured that by now we should be close to the suburbs, but I guess we set out into a particularly thick section of the forest seeing as we're still in it. However, I think that by tomorrow, we should definitely be out of the woods."

"So when we get to D.C., how are we supposed to get to Long Island, assuming that we live long enough?"

"I'm still working on that part of the plan. The easiest thing to do would probably just by tickets and take a Greyhound there, but that would take money that we don't have. I just hope that whatever it is that Thalia senses in Washington will help us. Otherwise, we'll be stuck with walking."

"That would suck."

Luke chuckled silently. "Yeah, it would. That's the only reason I agreed to going in the first place, to see if anything good will happen to us. You see, so much bad stuff has happened to us that I figure at some point, something good must happen, right?"

"Uh, sure."

"I know it sounds crazy, but maybe we could use a little crazy right now. Thalia has so much crazy built up in her that some of it is starting to pour out. While I think that the whole hunch about D.C. might not be anything at all, I've been wrong before. Like with the goat."

"I'm guessing that you're still not feeling up to telling me about that still?"

"That would be correct." He smirked. "Maybe you should go ahead and try to get some sleep. If you do somehow manage to get some sleep and something bad happens, I'll be sure to wake your, and Thalia's, butt up."

"Thanks," I said sarcastically as I made my way back to the sleeping bag.

I slipped myself in and, once again, attempted to get comfortable. After rolling around and finding a side that worked best, I eventually began to doze off. The next thing I knew, I blinked and it was suddenly day light.

"About time you woke up." Thalia was sitting on the fallen log by the dying fire, munching on chips from a bag and sipping from a bottle of water.

"Where'd Luke go?" I yawned as I rubbed the sleepiness from my eyes.

"Well, since you were still asleep, he volunteered to go scout ahead and see how far we are from civilization. He asked me to keep an eye on you while he went."

"How long has he been gone?"

Thalia shrugged. "I don't know, maybe ten, fifteen minutes. I just hope that he's okay." She offered me the bag of chips. "Want some?"

I declined and told her I wasn't that hungry. Besides, the chips would taste awful with my morning breath. I would probably wait about thirty minutes for the taste to go away before I ate anything.

"Oh, well. Suit yourself, more for me."

I sat up and started rolling up my sleeping bag, noticing that Thalia and Luke had already done the same. I walked over and joined Thalia on the tree trunk. She moved over slightly to allow more room for me.

"So we're supposed to be the children of the gods, right?" I asked.

Thalia nodded. "Why're you asking?"

"I was just wondering if there was any way you could tell me who my dad, or mom, is."

Thalia turned and studied me closely, mostly focusing on my face. "That's the thing, Percy. I've never seen any of the gods, so there's no way I could accurately tell you who you're related to."

"But I thought you said there was no way I was a son of Zeus because I look nothing like him."

"I don't how to explain it, but it's almost like…" She paused, as if she were searching for the right word. "It's almost like he's imprinted inside my head, like I can imagine what he looks like. And trust me, you look nothing like him."

"Well, we don't really look much alike, so I guess that too would also help."

Thalia shrugged. "Either way, we're not related. Well, if you _are _a half-blood, and I'm pretty convinced that you are one, we're all related in a weird sort of mythological expanded family kind of way."

I pulled out my pen and flipped it around a few times between my fingers. Thalia shifted slightly to the side.

I smiled stupidly. "Sorry," and then I put the pen back up.

"Hey Percy, can I see your pen?"

I pulled it back out and handed it over to her. She pulled it close to her face and stared at it for at least a minute, her eyes squinting.

"Uh, Thalia?"

She lowered the pen and uncapped it, three feet of celestial bronze springing forth. She stood up from the log and swung it a few times, making me move away. After she was done, she capped it and handed it back to me. "I never was very good with swords. I'm more of a spear person. And besides, your sword feels way too unbalanced. I don't see how you can fight with it."

"Really? It feels completely balanced to me. Plus, it seems like it doesn't weigh anything at all. It's almost like it's a part of my arm."

"Then that's good for you. Your weapon _should_ feel like that. That's how my spear is. If I've been fighting with it for a long time, I sort of forget that I'm even holding it." She pulled out her can of Mace, extended the spear, and handed it to me.

I took it and immediately almost dropped it. The thing had obviously been made with Thalia in mind. No matter which way I held it, it either dipped to the front or the back. I clicked a button and it collapsed back into the can. I returned it to her. "I see what you mean. There's no way I would be able to fight with that thing. A sword works fine for me."

Thalia nodded, putting the can away.

"So last night, when I was talking to Luke, we brought up Aegis and how you found it."

Thalia's blue eyes widened. "HE _TOLD YOU?"_

"No, no, no, he said that he didn't feel like talking about it. Every time I asked him, he just said no."

Thalia's temper quickly defused. "Good. Maybe after a few months I might feel like I could tell it to you, but the whole thing is just too recent. It would bring up way to many bad memories."

"Okay, sorry I even mentioned anything."

She shook her head. "No, it's not your fault for being curious. I think that if I were you right now, I would probably want to know everything about the people I would be walking across the country with too."

"So how long _have _you and Luke been walking across the U.S.?"

"It's felt like years, but I know that it's probably been less than one, but I first ran away when I was nine. I lived on my own for a couple of years, never staying somewhere for more than a few days. I was… I was so scared, all the time. I was scared that I was going to die. That was it. There wasn't anything else I cared about at the time. Not Zeus, _definitely _not my mom, just… well, nothing, until I ran into Luke about two years later. It was like everything just got better. I mean, things weren't great, they were like they are now, but it was way better than those two years I spent alone."

"Why didn't you try going to Camp Half-Blood?"

"I didn't know it existed. I didn't even know other demigods existed before I met Luke."

"You never ran into any others in those two years? Not even one?"

Thalia shook her head. "Not even one," she repeated. "Who knows what might have happened if I did find one. I might not even be here right now. _You _might not even be here right now. You would probably be dead."

"Well, thanks for that. Really boosts the self-esteem."

She half smiled and lightly punched me in the shoulder, which hurt much more than it should have. I felt a small jolt of electricity in my shoulder, which was made even worse by Thalia's punch.

"Ow!"

She sighed. "Maybe I shouldn't be touching anyone. That's been happening a lot lately. You saw Luke yesterday."

"Yeah, it looked like he was about to bludgeon you to death."

""Well, thanks for that. Really boosts the self-esteem'," she mocked in a voice that was a few octaves higher than mine.

This time, I lightly punched _her _in the shoulder, which only sent another jolt of electricity up my arm. "Yeah," I muttered. "Maybe you _shouldn't _be touching anyone… or have anyone touch you."

"Oh, no, I knew that you were going to do that. That was intentional."

"Thanks," I grumbled, rubbing my nearly-numb arm.

"Don't mention it," she grinned.

Leaves shook somewhere off to our left. Thalia and I immediately sprang from our seat and drew our weapons, preparing for the worst. Our celestial bronze was held out in front of us for a few seconds before Luke emerged from between the trees. We lowered our weapons as we saw Luke's surprised expression.

"So," he said. "How were things with you and Percy?"

"Fine," said Thalia. "Did you find anything?"

Luke nodded. "Yep. I highway not twenty minutes away from here. If we follow it, I think we should be in D.C. in a few days. It sucks that we don't have a car, or we could probably be there in less than an hour."

"Guess we'll be stuck with either walking or hitchhiking."

"Yeah, and both options aren't that great."

We went ahead and put out what was left of the fire with dirt and a little bit of bottled water. We gathered what little possessions we had and followed Luke out of the clearing and back into the forest.

**AN: Woo, got another one done! Just a heads up, the first few chapters of this story is just the prologue. The main plot of the story starts about four years later. Once again, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.**

**Percy Jackson is owned by Rick Riordan.**


	4. A Chance Meeting

**Percy**

_Two days later_

As it turned out, we _did _have to walk the entire way to Washington. It took about a day and a half to get there, and when we _were _there, we were all dead tired, so we took to sleeping in a private back alley for a few hours, to wait until the morning. Luke kept watch, waking us up as soon as the sun rose.

Thalia led us down the streets of Washington D.C. through the early morning commuters. Half of the time she looked like she knew where she was going, and the other half was just us walking around in large circles. To navigate the city, we used the Washington Monument as a center of a compass. White House to the north, Lincoln to the west, Capitol Building in the east, and the Jefferson Memorial to the south. Once we picked up on that, we were much more efficient at searching the city, but the thing was that we had no idea where we were even going or what we were looking for.

Thalia continued to shepherd us through the city, wandering aimlessly. At noon, we took a break at the Mall, in the shadow of the Washington Monument, facing the White House. Luke handed me a plastic bag filled with trail mix, which was the only thing we had eaten for the past two days. I reached into the bag and threw some mix into my mouth.

"Do you have any idea at all where we're going?" I asked.

Thalia shook her head. "Nope… Remember how I told you that I know what Zeus looks like even though I've never seen him before?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, that's what it's like. It's kind of like a map in my head… actually, I think a GPS would be more accurate. It's pointing me in the right direction, but it's always changing the route. We'll get there eventually, but it'll just take some time."

"That doesn't really sound reassuring," said Luke.

"Well, you said that we would get two days to search, right? So there's nothing to worry about. If we find something, great. If we don't, then whatever. Aside from helping Percy, there's not really much we planned on doing anyways."

"So what does the map in your head tell you?" I asked.

Thalia shrugged. "It just says that there's something here, but I don't know what it is. I think the reason we keep going around in circles is because what we're looking for is somewhere here, at the Mall."

"So, what, we just keep walking in circles all day?"

"If that's the way that it has to be, then yeah, that's what we'll do."

Luke and I groaned. Between the shocks and the relentless walking, this girl was going to kill us both.

"Oh, come on, don't be such babies. Besides, it's not like walking's bad for you. We could all use the exercise."

"Whatever," muttered Luke.

Thalia gave him a small static shock on his arm.

"Uh, _ow!_"

"Hmp, serves you right. Are you ready to go?"

Luke, rubbing where he had been shocked, nodded.

We put what was left of the trail mix in our backpacks and set off once again, Thalia leading us. At first, she sensed something at the World War II memorial, so we went there first. Of course, what do we find? Absolutely nothing. So next, we followed her to the Lincoln Memorial, where we once again found nothing. This seemed less like a search and more like a tour of Washington D.C. We circled back around until we were at the Washington Monument again and we started heading in the opposite direction, towards the Capitol Building.

Walking down a sidewalk, to either sides of us were a series of long buildings that I recognized as the Smithsonian museums. We passed a large red brick castle, which I assumed was also a part of the Smithsonian. We were about half a mile away from the Capitol when Thalia pointed to the right.

"Right there," she said.

"The Air and Space Museum?" I said.

She nodded. "Yep. That's it. That's definitely where we need to go."

Thalia started running up the steps, forcing Luke and I to follow close behind. We reached the main doors and followed a slowly moving group of children, all probably around our age. It appeared to be a school field trip as I saw several adult chaperones accompanying them. I thought it was a bit weird that they were having a field trip this late in May, when I assumed that school was about to let out, but I didn't really question it.

After standing in line for a few minutes outside, the line finally shortened so that we were inside, the cool air of the air-conditioning feeling amazing.

There were about twenty more students ahead of us in line. About five or six kids ahead of us, I saw one speaking to another. He appeared way older than the other kid- seeing as he was growing a scraggly brown beard-, was ridiculously skinny, but then I looked down and noticed that he was walking in crutches, and I immediately felt bad. I could overhear part of the conversation he was having with a kid I couldn't see.

"…Clarisse, s-something doesn't feel right."

I poked my head around and saw the guy in the crutches talking to a large girl with stringy brown hair who looked about a year or two older than everybody else in the group, save for the dude in the crutches.

"What are you talking about, Grover?" said Clarisse.

"I don't know, I just think something bad is going to happen," he replied nervously, readjusting his Rasta cap he wore that covered his curly hair.

"Well, if something bad happens, isn't that what the security is here for?"

Grover fidgeted slightly, and muttered, "That's not what I mean."

"Then what _do_ you mean?"

He shook his head, his face turning slightly red. "N-nothing. Forget I even said anything."

"Whatever."

The line continued to move on slowly. It took us about ten minutes to reach the metal detector. Thalia took off her leather jacket and handed it to me once I passed through security. Suddenly, the alarm went off, so they took her to the side to search her. The waved the metal detector up and down and stopped around her waist. My first thought was that they found her can of Mace and would take away her weapon, but she just lifted the hem of her shirt just slightly, revealing a metal studded belt, at which point they let her into the museum.

Handing her jacket back to her, I said, "So what does your GPS tell you now?"

She scrunched up her face. "I don't know. Hard to tell, but I'm pretty sure it's something in here."

We wandered around the museum, looking at the planes hanging down from the ceiling. The museum was even more crowded than I thought it had been. There was plenty of room to walk around, but I was thinking that, if there was a monster here, there may be a few casualties, but I quickly pushed that thought out of my head.

"Maybe what you're looking for is an object in one of the exhibits," I offered.

"Maybe…" said Thalia.

Seeing as we had nothing better to do, and Thalia insisting that her GPS led us here, we decided to take our time and walk around the exhibits. We turned into a room on the second floor. In the center was a bright red plane in the center of a circle. A panel said, after I had decoded it because of my dyslexia, that it was a Lockheed Vega 5B, which belonged to Amelia Earhart.

"I think she was a daughter of Zeus," said Thalia.

"Oh yeah?" said Luke.

"Yeah. I don't know why, but she just sort of seems like one." She pointed to a picture of her set into the circle display. "She doesn't really look like one, but at the same time she does."

"Well, I'll have you know that she actually _is _a daughter of Zeus."

"Really? How do you know?"

"Back when we were stuck with… with Hal, I looked through one of his books, which had a few pages dedicated to important historical demigods. She was in there, along with people like George Washington and President Taft."

"The fat one?"

"That's him."

"Huh."

We left the room and continued to walk around the museum. I'll freely admit, even though I wasn't into this kind of stuff, some of it I found pretty interesting. We walked back downstairs and sat down on a bench to take a quick breather. Directly ahead of us was the handicapped guy, Grover, and his friend Clarisse. Clarisse was looking at some exhibit with another student when Grover tripped, making his foot slide off- wait. His _foot _slid off, revealing cloven hooves. I quickly pointed, getting Thalia's and Luke's attention.

"Oh, man," whined Luke. "It's the goat thing all over again."

"No," said Thalia. "No, I think that's a satyr. That's a good thing, right?"

"Wait," I interjected. "What's a satyr?"

"They're half goat and half human," Thalia explained. "Kind of like how we're half god, only the have scrawny goat legs. They're also supposed to be protectors."

"Protectors? What are they supposed to be protecting?"

Thalia subtly pointed her finger at Clarisse. "Her. She's a demigod." She slapped the side of her head. "Of course! Duh! That's why my dad led us here. He wanted us to find to find Grover. He can take us to Camp Half-Blood."

"So, what? Are you going to walk up to him and say 'Hi, my dad's Zeus and I know you're a satyr, so if you could take us to a camp for half mortal children of the gods, that'd really be great'?"

She shrugged. "Maybe, if I have to."

"Maybe I can go talk to her?" Luke suggested.

Thalia shook her head. "No. No matter what you tell her, she'll just think that you're crazy."

"Then I can go talk to- what was his name? Grover?"

Thalia nodded. "Yeah, Grover."

"Then I can go talk to Grover. Since he's a satyr, he probably won't think that I'm crazy."

"Well, if you're going to go talk to him, then we all might as well go. It should make the whole thing seem less awkward than it already will be."

Luke pushed himself off of the bench and Thalia and I slowly followed him towards Grover and Clarisse. As we neared him, Grover seemed to sense us and flinched slightly, leaning into his crutches.

"Uh, hi," said Luke.

"H-hello," replied Grover. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

Clarisse eyed Luke cautiously.

"Uh… can I talk to you over here?" Luke motioned for Grover to follow him to a more secluded area, leaving me and Thalia with Clarisse.

I got a better look at Clarisse. She had beefy arms that were more muscle than fat, she was at least five and a half feet tall, and was wearing a shirt that had a velociraptor wearing boxing gloves with a knocked out kangaroo at its feet with the words _GET SOME! _printed at the top.

"So…" I began but didn't finish.

Clarisse just stood there with her arms crossed, glaring at us. I didn't know what her problem was with us, but I didn't ask.

"My name is Thalia," Thalia offered.

"Good for you," Clarisse said sourly.

We stood there for a few more awkward minutes before Luke and Grover returned from around the corner.

"…But she doesn't know!" said Grover in a low and urgent tone. "Once she knows, they'll be all over her."

"So it'll be good for her to know now rather than later when there'll be nobody to protect her… no offense."

Grover sighed. "I knew that this was going to happen, but I didn't think it was going to happen now. She's a lot older than most others who find out, so I was actually hoping that she wouldn't find out at all."

Luke and Grover came closer towards us.

"What's wrong?" Clarisse asked Grover.

"Uh, w-we're going to have to leave."

"Why? Is everybody else already leaving? We haven't even been here an hour."

"N-no, we're leaving without them. We're going with them." He pointed to us three.

"What? Why? And why with them? We just met them like three minutes ago. We don't know who they are."

"_I _know who they are. Trust me, please. We need to go with them. It's for your own safety."

"What do you mean my own safety? I'm pretty sure I can take care of myself."

Grover shook his head vigorously. "No, you don't understand. We have to leave _now._ There's no time to argue. Something bad is going to happen."

"Look, if this has to do with that 'feeling' you had early at security, you're just being paranoid for some reason."

"No, I just didn't want to tell you what was going on, at least not yet."

"What are you talking about?"

"There's something _here! _Something that wants to kill us, I can smell it."

"You can smell it?"

"Come on, Clarisse, we have to _go!_"

"I'm not getting into any more trouble, Grover. Don't you remember what happened last time we were on a-"

Suddenly, one of the windows exploded and a giant bronze bull the size of an elephant burst in, knocking tourists to the ground, narrowly avoiding trampling them.

"It's a Colchis bull!" Luke yelled over all of the commotion, drawing his dagger. "Come on, we have to leave now! _RIGHT NOW!"_

This time, Clarisse didn't argue.

The main exit wasn't an option. It was flooded with visitors. No, if we wanted to escape, we would have to go out the way the bull came in.

"Grover," Thalia yelled. "Get Clarisse out of here, take her to the Washington Monument. We have to take care of the bull so it doesn't hurt anybody."

She summoned Aegis and extended her spear. I uncapped my pen and together all three of us charged. We put in a few scratches, but nothing that would slow the bull down. Thankfully, the bull turned its attention on us, giving Grover and Clarisse just enough time to escape through the window behind it. Unfortunately, the bull turned its attention on us.

The Colchis bull lowered and extended its jaw and a burst of hot flames came from its mouth. I just barely pushed Thalia into Luke, causing all three of us to topple over, just out of the fire's range. When we landed on the ground, I rolled straight up to my feet and spun around and got in a few good hits on the bull, revealing the wiring underneath. The monster turned to us just as Luke and Thalia had regained their footing. We spread out in three directions, Luke to my left, Thalia to the right, and me directly in front of the Colchis bull.

While the easiest target for the bull would have been me, it took the others into account and ran past us, going to another section of the museum. An idea formed in my head as the bull charged past visitors and tourists.

"Go after the bull," I told Luke and Thalia as I started running for the stairs.

"Percy, where are you going?" called Thalia.

"Just trust me, I have a plan," I answered, capping my sword.

Going up the steps two stairs at a time, I looked over and saw the others running after the bull, just like I asked them. I arrived on the second story and ran as fast as I could, looking over the balcony to keep an eye on the bull. Luckily, the second floor was practically abandoned, which meant that I didn't really need to watch where I was going.

The Colchis bull was about halfway down the museum, me being about half of that. Luke and Thalia were about fifteen feet behind the bull, but they were somehow able to keep up. I continued running along the second floor, still keeping everything in view. At this point, the museum was almost entirely empty except for a few groups of people running over each other to escape through the main exit. I looked back down towards the opposite end of the Smithsonian and saw that the bull had stopped and turned around to face Thalia and Luke. I was now slightly past halfway, which I figured would take me maybe forty-five seconds to a minute to reach the other side.

Still watching and running, Thalia dodged to the side while Luke distracted from the front and stabbed the bull with her spear. The bull blew off some steam (literally) and, instead of turning to the daughter of Zeus, charged Luke. Luke had barely enough time to throw himself out of the way before the bull crashed straight into a wall. Thalia helped Luke up. Luke risked a glance upwards at me. He nodded and I returned the gesture.

I was now directly above the Colchis bull, probably something along the lines of fifteen or twenty, maybe even more, feet below, an old World War II plane hanging from the ceiling directly in front of me. I had to do this just right. If I didn't, I would probably die, and Luke and Thalia would probably die too as a result. Either way, I would most likely be no longer welcome in any of the Smithsonian museums for a long time, maybe even for the rest of my life. I waited for Thalia to prod the bull into the right position, not that she had any idea what my plan was. The bull was now about two feet off from where I needed it to be. Now it was five feet, and then three feet, now six feet. Precious seconds passed by until I saw the perfect opportunity and seized it.

I positioned myself on the balcony railing and, arms outstretched as far as they could go, I launched myself off. At first, I thought I missed because of the falling heart-in-your-throat thing, but then my hands came onto something solid. I pulled myself onto the plane, uncapped my sword and easily cut through the wires keeping the vehicle in place. I braced for impact as the plane dropped towards the ground, which eventually crushed the Colchis bull. Somehow, I managed to survive with only a few cuts and bruises. Seeing that the monster was still moving slightly under the plane, together, all three of us moved parts of the plane, exposing the broken machine beneath. Thalia jabbed her spear directly into the open mechanical heart of the Colchis bull, killing it once and for all.

We didn't waste any more time, racing towards the large gaping hole in the window that the bull made. Amazingly, nobody seemed too focused on us, and instead focused on the commotion caused by the plane falling.

"What are they going to say once they find the body of the bull?" I asked once we were on the sidewalk, walking back in the direction of the Washington Monument.

Above us, storm clouds were forming, casting a gray color on the world.

"That's not our problem. The Mist will take care of it," said Luke.

"What's the Mist?"

"It obscures what something really is, turning it into something that the mortals can better comprehend. I'm not sure what they'll think of the bull, but they'll probably say that it had something to do with the plane. And by the way, nice job."

I nodded in thanks. "It could have gotten you killed though."

"We probably didn't have much of a chance anyways," said Thalia, who was now turning her head every which way, keeping an eye out for Grover and Clarisse. "The plane was probably our best bet. Good job, Percy."

I shrugged as we kept up our pace, getting closer and closer to the monument. Finally, about ten minutes later, breathless, we arrived at the bottom, looking around for Grover and Clarisse. "There," I said, pointing over at the visitor's center.

We made our way over, spooking Grover, who had his back turned to us, in the process.

"W-what happened?" stuttered Grover.

"Well, we killed the bull," I said, "And destroyed a piece of American history while we were at it."

"Does she know?" asked Thalia, motioning towards Clarisse.

Grover nodded several times. "I explained it to her while we waited to see if you would come back. She's still hesitant to completely believe me, but she understands that her life is in danger and has agreed to come with us to Camp Half-Blood."

"So how're we supposed to get there?" said Luke. "I'm not really looking forward to walking all the way to Long Island."

Grover nodded again. "It's not really a problem. Seeing that many of the demigods go on quests to places all over the country, Camp Half-Blood has signed a contract with the company that runs the Greyhound buses."

"You're kidding."

Grover shook his head. "Actually, it's really quite useful. If we can find a nearby Greyhound station, I can show you how easy it is. Um, I think Union Station is back past the Capitol Building."

We all whined and complained, but we followed Grover back the way we came anyways. Once we arrived at the Capitol, he took a left down Delaware Avenue. We arrived at a long building that appeared to be made out of granite, or something along those lines. I don't know, I'm not that bright. In front of the building was a water fountain, decorated with smaller statues on either side, Christopher Columbus standing tall in the middle, facing opposite of the building. Far to the side was a blue copper replica of the Liberty Bell. We made our way past the fountain and entered Union Station.

Inside the station, tall vaulted ceilings stretched high above us, the floor polished and shining underfoot. Grover led us to a Greyhound station where we could buy our tickets. He tapped a few buttons on the touchscreen and, making sure nobody else around us was looking, he pressed his thumb into a tiny slot, just barely visible below the screen. The monitor quickly flashed with letters from the Greek alphabet before printing out five tickets for New York City.

"There," said Grover, satisfied and handing us our tickets. "Easy."

He led us down to the main Greyhound station, where we had to wait an hour and a half for our bus to depart.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," said Clarisse. "I don't even have all of my things."

"We can provide whatever it is you need at Camp Half-Blood. If that doesn't work out for you, I can always get Hermes's company to ship it to you. I don't think it'll cost that much, seeing as he's also started taking mortal cash."

Clarisse didn't seem to being paying much attention to what Grover was saying, staring off into the distance. I wondered if this was how I felt when I found out I was a demigod, or even Thalia and Luke. Maybe even all half-bloods felt this way. It wouldn't surprise me.

"I hope nothing bad happens on our way," I said out loud. "It seems that no matter what we do, something bad always happens."

"Shh," hushed Thalia. "Don't jinx it."

Finally, at about four o'clock, the bus was ready to be boarded. We took our seats far in the back, so we could have some space to ourselves. Luke, Thalia and I took one seat, with Grover and Clarisse taking the other one. Once everybody on the bus was seated, the vehicle lurched forward and we were on our way to Camp Half-Blood.

Before we were out of the city, I noticed a man at the head of the bus wearing a large trench coat, fedora, and shades, despite the fact that, given the thunder storm that was now raging outside, it was pretty dark outside. He cast one glance in our direction, and I knew that as soon as he turned away that something bad was going to happen sometime between now and when we got to New York. Typical.

**AN: All right, finished another one! This is definitely my longest chapter to date, and I hope to make longer ones, but I don't know which ones those will be. I would have posted this last night, but my ADHD kicked in and I procrastinated. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. And please keep the review coming, I love the encouragement you guys and girls have given me so far. I'm excited to continue on with this story, so I hope to update again soon. So again, I hope all of you dug the chapter. Thanks for reading!**

**Percy Jackson is owned by Rick Riordan. **


	5. Camp

**Percy**

Fortunately, nothing happened on our way to New York. Unfortunately, something happened _in _New York.

The entire four hour bus ride, I kept my focus on the man in the trench coat. I know, I know, pretty cliché, right? Anyways, I mentioned him to Thalia, who said, "Seeing as we just came from D.C., are you really that surprised to see somebody that looks that suspicious?"

I shrugged. "Well, no I guess. I mean, no in that I'm not surprised to see somebody that looks like that who's probably a monster here to kill us."

She let out a small sigh. "So negative, Percy. Well, if he is a monster, than I'm sure that we'll have no problems taking him on."

"Like how you handled the bull in the Smithsonian?"

She frowned. "That was different."

"Oh really? How so?"

Thalia fidgeted slightly. "Well, uh, it was… unexpected?"

I shrugged. "I guess. But we still don't know what kind of monster this could be, though. I mean, it could probably be anything."

"Not anything. There really aren't that many monsters that are that small, which sort of narrows it down."

"Well what do you think it is?"

"I don't know. Just be ready in case something _does _happen."

And so I kept an eye on him the entire bus ride- all four hours of it. Finally, the bus was inside Manhattan, where we would soon be dropped off at a Greyhound station. Grover said that, once we got off, he would call for some dude named Argus to pick us up at the station, who would drive us all the way to Camp Half-Blood at the tip of Long Island, which was another two and a half hours away.

As we headed down a street I was unfamiliar with in Manhattan, we all picked up our things and prepared to get off. I kept my hand closed around my pen, just in case. The man in the coat stood up, just like I expected he would. What I wasn't expecting was him growing to three times his size and tearing a large hole in the side of the bus. Luckily, all the people who were sitting nearby managed to move out of the way so they could go cry in the corner.

The bus suddenly stopped in the middle of the street as the trench coat was torn to shreds, revealing a fifteen foot tall blue man, a club in hand. A shaggy green beard grew out from his chin and came all the way down to his chest. He wore nothing but a loincloth. He stared directly at me and roared, "I'LL KILL YOU, SON OF THE SEA GOD!"

"Son of the sea god?" Thalia whispered next to me, Mace can extended into a spear with a celestial bronze tip.

"Clarisse, get down!" Grover whimpered.

People were already starting to pile out of the bus in droves, pushing over each other to escape from the giant. I uncapped my pen, not really thinking about what the monster had just called me. Luke drew his dagger as I charged forward, rolled, and plunged my sword into the giant, blue blood leaking out. The giant laughed as he easily grasped my in his hand and tossed me outside. I made sure to roll once I hit the wet pavement, the thunder storm still raging overhead.

The giant hopped out of the bus, giving my friends a chance to get out also. As he approached me, I saw Luke and Thalia leading Grover and Clarisse out to safety, not ten feet away from the monster. Once they were a safe distance away, Thalia and Luke came running back, weapons at the ready.

"Ah," said the giant. "More food for me!"

He swept his club at them, but missed and ended up hitting the side of the ruined bus, tearing off a large chunk of the vehicle. Thalia quickly leapt forward and stabbed the giant in the chest. It roared and swung again, but missed and smashed into the ground instead. With the giant's focus now on Luke and Thalia, I sprinted towards the monster and, on an impulse, jumped up onto its back. Gripping the loose folds of its back fat (I know, gross), I managed to climb up so that I was now on its shoulders. I lifted up my sword and prepared to strike, but Luke, not seeing me, managed to stab the giant in the ankle, causing me to fall off and land on Thalia, who groaned under me as she hit the ground.

"Get _off_ of me, Jackson!" she grunted, pushing me off. She reached down and retrieved her spear as I picked up my sword.

The giant laughed in triumph as he held Luke by his leg.

"Hey guys," the son of Hermes called at us. "A little help would be appreciated."

"Shut up, Luke," said Thalia, advancing on the giant. "We're working on it."

She charged forward, the spear aimed directly at the giant's chest. The giant wound his arm back and swung down, Luke still in hand. Before Luke could hit Thalia, I jumped forward and sliced the giant's hand off, which now flopped about uselessly on the ground. Like me just moments before, Luke crashed into Thalia, knocking her off her feet for the second time.

The giant yelled in pain, dropping its club and clutching the blue stump where his hand used to be. "I'll kill you for this!"

"Weren't you already going to kill me before?" I remarked.

He yelled and ran towards me. I dodged to the side as he attempted to step on me, an attempt that failed in every way possible. The giant was slow and stupid, that much was clear. Right when he thought I was under his foot and he slammed down, I was at least five feet away, cutting and slicing away at him. A few minutes later, he was covered with blue cuts all over his body, icy blue blood flowing from them.

Finally, he got a good hit in on me. I was sent flying into a parked taxi cab on the side of the street, putting in a decent sized dent into the door. I groaned and crawled to the side, only slightly aware of Thalia and Luke attempting to devise a plan that didn't involve just running up to him.

The giant was now standing over me, his facing staring down at me. He lifted is foot as if he were about to stomp, but then a long pole shot forward from over me, impaling the giant in the throat. He fell to the side and grasped with his hand and his stump until he completely melted into water and was washed away in the storm.

Thalia hoisted me to my feet.

"Thanks," I huffed between breaths.

"What do you think?" she said to Luke, who was now standing beside her. "A teenage Hyperborean?"

Luke shook his head. "No, I don't think so. Even though he wasn't as tall as one, he looked like he was pretty old."

"So a really short, really old Hyperborean giant?"

"I don't know. I mean, it's possible, sure, but I don't think that's what it was. First the wolf and now this. Things are getting weird… well, as weird as they can get with us."

Clarisse and Grover ran up to us, both of their heads soaking wet. "Okay, I'm not going to lie," said Clarisse. "But I'll admit that was pretty cool. So do you do stuff like this all the time?"

Luke nodded. "Unfortunately, yeah. Yeah, we do."

Clarisse looked like she might have been initially excited, but that look quickly left her face. "Well, anyways, let's get to this… what was it called? Camp Hat-Bone?"

"Camp Half-Blood," corrected Grover. "C-come on, let's go before anybody sees us here and blames us for the accident."

We followed Grover, who led us down several blocks. Thankfully, the storm let up to a light drizzle. In the heat of the fighting, I didn't realize that I was completely dry while everybody else was completely soaked.

"He called me son of the sea god," I said to Thalia while we followed Grover down the streets. "So does that mean…" I racked my head for answers. What was his name? Come on, you idiot. You know this. "So does that mean that my dad is Neptune?"

"Poseidon, not Neptune. Neptune's Roman. Totally different. But if you are the son of the sea god, then yeah, that would mean that Poseidon is your dad."

"So he's one of the major gods, right? I mean, like, _really _major."

"Yeah, he's one of the Big Three: Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. After the war with the Titans, they split the world between each other. Zeus got domain over the sky, Poseidon got the sea, and Hades got the Underworld, which is why he resents Zeus and Poseidon. He thinks that, well, he thinks that he kind of got screwed over."

"So do you think that all of these monsters were sent by him, to kill us? Because if Poseidon is my dad, it would make sense, right?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, I guess it would. Either way, HEY GROVER!"

He turned around. "Y-yes?"

"What are you looking for?"

"I'm looking for- ah, there we go! Found it!"

It was a payphone. He put in some quarters while everybody else waited, the rain eventually coming to an end. I couldn't hear what he was saying, but Grover was speaking quickly and urgently. About thirty seconds later, he put the phone back up. "All right," he announced. "Argus should be here soon."

We sat down outside and waited at least two hours before a white van pulled up in front of us. I was half expecting a hobo to pop out and say, "Hey kids! Want some candy?" Instead, it was a tall blond guy covered with dozens of blue blinking eyes. Somehow, I was unsurprised.

"Hey, Argus," said Grover.

Argus just nodded.

Grover was already inside the van. "Well," he said, all of us staring at Argus. "Are you going to get in or not?"

It took us another two hours to reach the end of Long Island. The gray clouds had parted and now an orange cloudless sky shone down on us. The van pulled up to a large hill, and as we all piled out, there was the distinct scent of strawberries in the air.

Grover led us up the hill, and directly ahead of us was a large building, which just looked like a big farm house.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood," said Grover, already walking down the crest of the hill towards the house.

The valley stretched out before us. In the distance, I could make out a group of what looked like cabins arranged in a U shape. In another part of the valley, I saw a large area with big white Greek columns. Further out towards the woods, I could barely see what appeared to be an arena.

"Well, come on," said Grover before I could see any more of the valley, Clarisse trailing behind him closely.

Luke, Thalia and I followed hesitantly. When we got close to the front porch of the farm house, Grover called out, "Chiron?"

"No, just me," a voice inside returned.

We rounded a corner and saw a short man with curly black –almost purple- hair, a red nose, a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he was drinking from a can of Diet Coke. "I'm sure you're humbled by my presence," he said in a lazy voice, taking another sip of the soda. "What do you want, Gerber?"

"Uh, it's Grover, Mr. D."

"Did you just talk back to me?" His voice still had the same lazy quality to it, but Grover was now shaking in his hooves.

"N-no, sir. B-but I brought back four demigods… safely too, if I might add."

"Well that last part you're going to have to take up with those other old satyrs. As for them," he pointed at us. "What Chiron does with the brats is none of my business. If you do decide to go look for him, I think he's over at the archery range. Now get out of here before I turn all of you into dolphins."

A horn rang in the distance.

"Never mind," said Mr. D. "Dinner time." He snapped in disappeared, leaving behind the faint scent of grapes mixed with Diet Coke.

"Dinner time?" I asked.

Grover nodded. "Yeah, come on, it's this way."

We reached the big open area, the one with the Greek columns, tables, and large braziers. "Percy and Clarisse, you two will be sitting at the Hermes table," said Grover once we arrived.

"All right, cool," said Luke. "But why do we have to sit at separate tables?"

Grover shrugged. "It's just… out of respect, you know?" He didn't elaborate anymore on his answer.

Instead, he led us to a set of tables where just about every seat was taken up. Grover showed Thalia to a table across the floor, far away from us. She kept an eye on us anxiously, her leg bouncing up and down constantly.

I was about to lean over to a camper to ask what was going on when a man whose bottom half was a horse was at the head of a table next to Mr. D slammed one of his hooves down on the floor. Somehow, the sight of him didn't really surprise me that much. I guess that it was something that I was just used to at this point, between the giant wolf and the dude with eyeballs all over his body.

"Who's that?" I whispered to a camper next to me.

"That's Chiron," he replied. "Are you new?"

"Yeah. My name's Percy Jackson."

He stuck his hand out, which I shook. "Connor Stoll."

Another camper stuck his head out from behind me. He looked shockingly similar to Connor. "Travis Stoll," he said.

"Twins?" I asked.

They both nodded in unison.

"I can imagine that you two cause a lot of trouble around here. You know, being twins and the sons of Hermes and all."

Connor grinned wickedly. "Oh, yeah. You can bet on that."

"Campers," boomed Chiron. "As some of you may know, four demigods arrived today… and before you ask, two of them are yet to be determined. I would like all of you to welcome Luke, Thalia, Clarisse, and Percy to Camp Half-Blood." I noted that none of us had actually told Chiron our names.

There were some half-hearted cheers. After Chiron returned to the table, girls, which Connor told me were called wood nymphs, carried large platters of food: pizza, barbeque, hamburgers, hotdogs, Italian and Chinese, chicken, grapes, bread, apples, oranges, and other assorted fruits and vegetables. I pretty much took a little of everything.

Travis stood up, plate in hand, and pulled me back slightly. "C'mon Percy, we have to go give our offerings."

"Offerings?"

"To the gods," he explained. "It's, uh, out of respect, you know? Kind of like back in the old days."

"All right…" I said, getting out of my seat and picking up my plate.

Travis led me to a long line of campers, but it was moving fast. They were tossing in pieces of food. Finally, Travis was at the head of the line, throwing in a slice of pizza. "To Hermes," he said silently.

It was now my turn. I picked up a piece of bread and, after some thought, threw it in. "To dad… or mom, or whoever," I said awkwardly.

I followed Travis back to the Hermes table. As I took a seat, I noticed Thalia sitting by herself, alone. Looking further down the table I was currently sitting at, I noticed Luke and Clarisse getting along with the other campers. Clarisse still occasionally shot me looks, but otherwise, she was too busy either laughing with someone or at someone.

I leaned over to Connor. "Why do some of the campers have to sit by themselves?" I made sure not to name names, just in case.

Connor moved his head slightly. "You mean Zeus's daughter?"

"Uh, sure."

"Well, it's sort of… just because, I guess. I mean, there's really no rule stating specifically that you're not allowed to do it, but like everything else here, it's out of respect to the gods," he said, giving me the same answer Grover told me.

I took a sip out of my magical self-refilling cup, which was filled with root beer. I picked up my plate. "Well, since there isn't a rule, I'm going to go sit with her."

Connor took a breath and sighed. "Whatever man. It's your funeral."

Ignoring his last comment, I stood up and walked over to Zeus's table. Thalia looked up at me, her fingers drumming on the table, a plate of uneaten food in front of her. "Oh…" she said. "Hey Percy. I thought Grover said that we couldn't sit together."

"Well, there's not really a rule saying that we can't, so I just figured… you know, why not?"

I took my seat directly facing her. "Did you do the offering thing yet?"

She nodded. "Yeah, it was… weird, I suppose. I didn't really know what to say to my dad, so I just threw something in and said 'Zeus.'"

"I didn't really know what to say either, so I pretty much did the something, except I didn't know whose name to say."

"Well, there's still the possibility of it being Poseidon."

"Yeah, but what if Poseidon isn't my dad? I don't know if the gods would've gotten mad or anything for offering to the wrong god, but since they're gods, I suppose that they really don't care all that much."

Thalia shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."

Having no real food to eat for the past several days, we finished our food in no time before we took seconds. They took a bit longer to eat, but we finished nonetheless. We were both full, occasionally taking sips of our drinks. A few minutes later, Luke made his way over to us and sat down next to me.

"I didn't know we could sit wherever we wanted."

"Err, I don't actually know that," I said a bit awkwardly. "I just sort of sat down."

Luke sat up a little bit straighter as if Zeus would blast him with a bolt of lightning at any second.

Outside, the sun was now on the horizon and steadily sinking. There was a loud pounding sound. We turned and saw the Chiron was now standing in the center, by the brazier. "The time has come for capture the flag!"

Cheers and whoops went up from the other campers around us. We just sat there with blank looks on our faces.

"Capture the flag?" I whispered. I guess any questions I had would have to wait.

"Blue Team and Red Team, get ready."

Groups of demigods sat up from their tables and began to assemble in large circles on opposite sides of the room. Not really knowing what to do, we went to whatever team Hermes was on, which turned out to be Blue Team. We all got fitted into armor, which sat on me really loosely, so I contemplated leaving it off all together.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," warned Travis. "Capture the flag can get pretty dangerous, especially if you're a newbie."

I scoffed, but kept the armor on. "It's capture the flag. How dangerous can it be?"

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

I decided to leave the armor on.

"All right," called Connor. "Come on, Blue Team! Let's go get us a flag!"

Loud cheering mixed in with boos from the opposite side. We ignored them as we followed the Stoll twins into the forest. Thalia, Luke, and Clarisse stayed close. Thalia, Luke and I had our normal weapons out, Clarisse with a standard celestial bronze sword. Since she had never swung a sword in her life, as far as we knew, she would be kept back at the flag, just in case anybody slipped behind our defensive lines.

Our flag was placed in a small concealed clearing in the forest: a hill surrounded by a thick band of trees. Positioned high up in the branches were several half-bloods from the Apollo cabin, their bows ready to hit anybody who came close to the flag. Luke would help with the ground defense, along with Hephaestus cabin, who lay traps around the entrance to the clearing. Me, Thalia, and the rest of the Hermes cabin was on offense.

"Okay," I said once the team was huddled together. "I think we need some sort of diversion, something to draw the other team away from their flag, something so big that they would have to leave and investigate."

The Stoll twins exchanged looks with Charles Beckendorf, a son of Hephaestus, and they smiled slyly. "Leave that to us, Percy," said Travis.

Uh-oh.

"So if the forest is set up like you told me earlier," I continued. "Then there's a creek about two hundred and fifty feet away from where we think they'll be hiding their flag. Why do you think the flag's there again?"

"Because they're predictable that way," said Conner. "Seriously, the past ten times we've played, they always put it there."

"Well, if it is there, then you said that there were two paths leading up to it, right?"

The twins nodded.

"So I say that we split into three groups. Two go down both of the paths and the third takes the center, going straight through the trees and waiting for them to be either cleared out or distracted. It'll be noisy, so we need to have the stealthiest half-bloods do it."

"Well," said Luke. "Seeing as Hermes is the god of thieves, I'd say that there's probably a number of us that's more than qualified."

"Are you volunteering?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Sure. Why not?"

"Who else would you be taking?"

"Seeing as the Stolls are in charge of the diversion, are there any other volunteers?"

About five kids I recognized from the Hermes cabin stepped forward and stood next to Luke.

"Right," I said, pulling out my pen. "Who's going to be in charge here?"

A guy I recognized as Lee Fletcher raised his bow. "I'm in command of defense," he announced.

I nodded. "All right. Thalia, you and I will be going with the team that's going in on the left. Clarisse, you're going to be the one guarding the flag."

Clarisse stiffened. "M-me?" she stuttered.

"Yeah, you'll be in a really obvious spot, so when people run up to you, they'll be in the right position for Lee to take them out. Okay, does anybody else have any more suggestions before we set out?" Nobody said anything, so I said, "Ready?"

Everybody cheered, shaking their weapons up in the air, and, once split up, we all went to our positions.

Travis, Connor, and Beckendorf set off ahead of us, presumably to set up the distraction, whatever it would be. I had a bad feeling about it. Thalia and I went with the team that would be attacking from the left side, Luke taking is stealth team down into the woods. The right team set off to their respective direction while we went down ours. My pen was now out in its three foot celestial bronze glory, Thalia's spear and shield held directly out in front of her, which we were hoping that it would help clear a path, the head of Medusa superimposed on the metal.

So far, aside from the sounds of our feet pressing over green leaves in the dirt and the subtle clanking of our armor, the forest was eerily silent. "What do you think the distraction will be?" I asked Thalia.

"I don't know, but I hope that they'll pull it off in time for us to be able to get to the flag."

We were at the creek now, Luke's group crossing into the trees, the other team visible behind them. As soon as we crossed the water, there was an explosion, the loud _craaaack _of a tree following right after. In the distance, I spotted a tall tree, maybe fifty feet high, slowly falling to the right, which would be somewhere near where we expected their flag to be.

"Oh, my gods," breathed Thalia.

Far to our right, there was the sound of steel on steel, members of Red Team falling into the creek.

"Percy, watch out!" Thalia called.

I lifted my sword just in time to catch the blade of an Ares demigod. I pulled away and slashed downwards as more demigods emerged from the path, engaging with the rest of the half-bloods in the group. I kicked out, which hit the Ares guy center in the chest. Going off balance, the weight of his armor pulled his butt to the ground, water splashing up on him.

A large group of half-bloods charged, but immediately retreated at the sight of Aegis. Thalia poked anybody who was either curious or dumb enough to move forward with the point of her spear, careful not to hurt anyone too much.

With Thalia's help, we were constantly gaining ground, Thalia using her spear and shield to herd the demigods in the opposite position of their flag. Occasionally, somebody managed to avoid her, but I kept them at bay, always keeping Aegis to my back.

After a while, all of the fighting just sort of blended together: cut, slash, dodge, riposte, block, parry, bash, cut, block. It lasted for about fifteen minutes before we spotted Luke, blood red flag in hand, being chased, alone, by at least twenty demigods, most of them coming from the group that we had led away from the base.

"Thalia, keep them busy," I said, not waiting for an answer as I ran off to assist Luke.

I jumped and knocked the half-blood nearest to him to the ground. I quickly recovered and held off three demigods at a time as Luke got closer and closer to the creek. Finally, I got overwhelmed and made a mad dash towards the water, almost catching up to Luke. He was almost to the creek when, out of nowhere, he was tackled to the ground, the flag flying up in the air. I knocked down the demigod who tackled Luke and grabbed the flag. "C'mon!" I told Luke, who was already running.

I splashed into the water and the flag changed from red to sea green, a similarly colored trident in the center. The game was over. We had won.

"Well," said Thalia, who had already put away her weapon and shield. "I guess that settles it, huh?"

I gulped and nodded. "Yeah, I guess so."

All of the other campers came down to the creek and cheered and congratulated me for winning capture the flag the first time I ever played it. Somewhere off to our left, Chiron's hooves splashed in the water, the sounds coming closer and closer. "Well, Percy Jackson," he said, his arms crossed. "I guess I now know what cabin you'll be staying in. Thalia, would you please come with me too?"

"Um, sure…" said Thalia, not actually sure.

We followed Chiron until he led us out of the woods and angled towards the U shape I saw from the top of the hill earlier.

"So these are the cabins that everybody stays in, right?" I asked, pointing out the obvious.

Chiron nodded, a warm smile on his face. "That would be correct, Percy."

"Before we go any further, I need to tell you something, which, in hindsight, I probably should have told you earlier, but everything was going by so fast. I… well, aside from my name, I can't remember anything. Thalia said that she and Luke just found me, passed out."

He paused and stroked the beard on his chin. "Perhaps this would be a matter best discussed in the morning. You know, to give me time to think it over."

I nodded. "All right, so what were you going to show us here before I interrupted you?"

"I was going to show you two to your cabin, seeing as once everything has been put away, all of the other campers have to go straight to their cabins, since we have a curfew set in place. I'm basically just giving you a head start. I can imagine that both of you are tired."

I nodded, just now realizing how much my bones ached and how I was struggling to keep my eyes open.

"Well, I suppose ladies, and children of Zeus, first," he said, pointing out to the first cabin we came to.

Zeus's cabin was more like a temple. It was made from some sort of shiny marble, the gold doors polished even brighter, emblazoned with lightning bolts. Thalia hesitantly stepped forward. She only went in after looking back at Chiron, who nodded encouragingly. "Goodnight, Percy," she said. "I guess I'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight."

The door closed and Chiron led me to another cabin, which was made out of some sort of gray stone studded with shells and coral. It was flat and low, but when Chiron opened the door, it appeared to be much roomier on the inside. My bag rested at the foot of my bed. "Did you know?" I asked, pointing to the backpack.

"I had a, how would say… hunch that you were Poseidon's son. You definitely have his look. All I needed was some sort of confirmation, otherwise I would have had to temporarily crowd you into the Hermes cabin."

"Well, uh, thanks for that, I guess. So what do we do tomorrow?"

"There'll be a blast from a conch shell, which I imagined you must've heard earlier before dinner." When I nodded, he continued. "When the shell is blown, go back to the dining pavilion, where we will be serving breakfast. After you eat, please come to me at the Big House. If things work out, we may be able to see the cause of your, ah, predicament."

"Thank you," I said before he closed the door for me.

I unstrapped the armor, which I would have to take back the next morning, dropped it to the floor, and flopped myself onto the bed, which, after days, and possibly longer, of sleeping on the ground, was the best thing I had felt in a long time.

It seemed that the moment I closed my eyes, the conch shell rang a second later. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, early morning light streaming in through the window next to the door. Seeing as I hadn't done anything the night before, I dug out a fresh pair of clothes from my backpack and put them on. I noticed that there was a new shirt inside, an orange one that read: CAMP HALF-BLOOD. I shrugged, put it on, tied my shoes, and stepped outside, Thalia leaving Zeus's cabin at the same time.

I nodded. "Morning."

She replied with the same greeting. Together, without a word, we made our way to the pavilion, most of the other campers accompanying us. When we got there, Thalia and Luke sat at Poseidon's table this time, Chiron making some announcements that didn't pertain to me. As soon as the announcements were made, wood nymphs brought in trays stacked high with all kinds of breakfast food: pancakes, bacon, eggs, toast, cereal, French toast, omelets, crêpes, sausage, ham, hash browns, and a large variety of fruit. I pretty much took whatever I could hold on my plate, my glass filled to the brim with orange juice. Luke's and Thalia's plates looked identical to mine.

"So what's first today?" asked Luke.

"Well, after breakfast, I'm supposed to see Chiron at that farm house. Since you guys were the ones who found me, I was sort of hoping that you would come with me."

"Sure, Percy," said Thalia, slapping me on the back with a little jolt of electricity.

"Ow… anyways, I have no idea what we'll be doing after that."

"What if Chiron find out what happened to you? Do you know what he'll do then?"

I shook my head, shoving a slice of bacon in my mouth. "No idea."

We proceeded to eat our breakfast, which, by the way, tasted amazing. I finished off my glass of OJ in three big gulps and waited for Thalia and Luke to finish theirs. Once they did, we left the pavilion and aimed towards the Big House. Inside, we found Chiron having a conversation with Mr. D, who was the camp's director, as I had been told by half the people Hermes's cabin.

"So he's old Barnacle Beard's kid, huh?" said Mr. D, his eyes focused on his can of Diet Coke. "I can honestly say that I'm glad he's not one of mine."

"What do you mean?" I asked, unintentionally interrupting whatever conversation they were having before we arrived.

Mr. D suddenly got angry, his face turning purple. "_Boy, if you had half I mind, you would-"_

Chiron cleared his throat. "Mr. D, he is new, so perhaps you shouldn't treat him so harshly. The boy is, after all, just a boy. Twelve, correct Percy?"

I nodded.

"Well, I don't think that you had a proper introduction yesterday, so allow me to introduce him for you. This is Mr. D, Camp Half-Blood's director."

"What does the D stand for?"

Mr. D ground his teeth. "_Boy…"_

"It's Dionysus, isn't it?" said Thalia. "Oh, gods, Mr. D, we didn't know. Just… please don't turn us into dolphins."

That seemed totally out of character for her. Dionysus? Where had I heard that name before? Oh… "The wine god?"

Mr. D scoffed, all of his anger towards me seemingly gone. "There's no wine to be found here, Peter Johnson. Might as well be the god of… Diet Coke or something."

Chiron cleared his throat again. "Percy, Thalia, Luke… would you please walk with me?"

I sighed in relief as Chiron led us to the hill that we first arrived at, looking over the ocean on the other side of the road. "Is there anything that you can remember, Percy? Anything at all?"

I shook my head. "No, nothing except my name. Like I said, Thalia and Luke just found me unconscious one day. A few days later, I woke up. And that's really it."

"It is strange that you weren't formally claimed last night," he said, scratching his chin. "Normally the symbol for your father would have hovered above you, indicating that you are Poseidon's child. Perhaps he claimed you before all of this happened. That's definitely a possibility we can consider."

"Are there any other possibilities that we can consider?" said Thalia.

Chiron shrugged. "Well, I'm sure that there are dozens, maybe even hundreds, of other possibilities to consider but… hmm, perhaps Percy could pay the Oracle of Delphi a visit."

"I'm sorry, the Oracle of who?" I asked.

Chiron shook his head. "No, no, of course not. You're too new. It would be very dangerous, so perhaps it would be best to visit in a year or two if the solution doesn't present itself."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You can't bring up something like that and _not _tell me what it is."

"No, Percy, trust me, it's better this way. You are far too young. At worst, seeing the Oracle would drive you mad if you are not prepared enough to see. I say that we give you a few more years of experience before you visit it."

"So, what you're telling me is that I'm stuck without my memories because the one thing that could possibly tell me what happened might drive me insane?"

"…Well, when you put it like that, it makes it seem worse that how I said it, but, basically, yes, that is what I am saying."

"Well, that's not really much help," I said, subconsciously pulling out my pen.

"Ah, I see that your father has given you a weapon."

"Poseidon gave this to me?" I asked in genuine surprise.

"Most likely indirectly, but yes, that weapon is from your father. Its name is Anaklusmos."

"Anaklusmos?"

"It means 'riptide' in ancient Greek."

"I think I'll stick with calling it Riptide. Anaklusmos doesn't exactly roll off the tounge."

Chiron smiled. "Well, perhaps it would have if you lived in ancient Greece, where that's all you would speak."

I shrugged. "Yeah, maybe, but I'll guess we'll never know."

"No, I suppose we won't."

The next three weeks went by surprisingly fast.

All it was was a mishmash of eating awesome food, training, campfires, capture the flag, volcano rock wall climbing, and a bunch of other awesome stuff. Whenever I wasn't doing that, I was usually hanging around with either Luke or Thalia or both. Although I had eventually made some other friends, like Connor and Travis Stoll, Beckendorf, and Lee Fletcher, Thalia and Luke would always be my closest. Every time we played capture the flag, we would always come up with a plan that involved all three of us somehow. We always sat at the same table, despite Grover's insistence that we shouldn't. Everything was going great until that one afternoon in June.

Grover came to collect me, storm clouds gathering above Camp Half-Blood. "H-hey Percy."

"Oh, hey. What's up, Grover?"

"Oh, well, you know, the sky and stuff…"

"…What did you need?"

"Chiron and Mr. D need to talk to you as soon as possible. It's really important." He fidgeted as if he thought Dionysus would turn him into a dolphin if he didn't bring me. Maybe he would, which would have been very bad.

"All, right. Lead me to them."

I followed Grover all the way back to the Big House, Mr. D still lazily reclining in his chair as if he hadn't moved. It was very possible that he hadn't. Chiron stood by the door way, pulling at his chin as if he were deep in thought. He suddenly looked up. "Ah, Percy. Good, it's very good that you've come."

"Care to tell me what's going on?" I asked, but not unkindly.

"Your father and Thalia's, Zeus and Poseidon… They're fighting."

"Fighting? For what?"

"During the last winter solstice, when the gods met, Zeus's master bolt was stolen."

"How can a god's weapon be stolen?"

"Well, it can't be done by another Olympian, so whoever the thief is had to get somebody to steal it. Zeus, despite your close friendship with his daughter, blames you."

"But how?" I exclaim. "I've had amnesia this whole… oh."

Chiron nodded. "Exactly. That is why you are the main suspect. You are Poseidon's son _and _you do not have all of your memories. Zeus demands that you return it by the summer solstice, in three weeks."

"But how am I supposed to find it? It could be practically anywhere."

Chiron's face darkened. "I think that it is time that you met the Oracle of Delphi."

I felt my heart rate increase. "You mean the one where you said that if I wasn't ready enough, it could make me go crazy?"

"I'm afraid so," he said sadly and with pity.

I took a deep breath. "So where is this oracle?"

"Follow the stairs all the way to the top, to the attic." He pointed towards the back of the Big House.

I was about to step forward when a camper that I recognized as Selina Beauregard, a daughter of Aphrodite, appeared at the entrance of the building, gasping for air. "Chiron… Half-Blood Hill…" she said between breaths. "Demigod… Monsters…"

Chiron wasted no more time as he galloped at full speed out of the Big House, a bow and arrow at the ready. Selina started to walk over towards the hill, still regaining her breath, but I charged after Chiron, Riptide uncapped.

At Half-Blood Hill, there was a girl with blond hair running up from the road, a steel sword in her hand, a small army of monsters coming after her. Most of them were midnight-black wolves, all of which were seven feet tall at the smallest, fifteen at the largest.

Chiron readied his bow and fired at the wolf closest to the girl, which fell forward and rolled over itself several times before dissolving into black mist. I was about to charge down there to help the girl when Chiron, who was still automatically firing off arrows, said, "No, it's too dangerous. Just let me handle it long enough until she gets to the barrier."

"Barrier? What barrier?"

The girl collapsed right past the crest of the hill. The wolves, who were merely inches away, crashed into an invisible wall. Chiron picked up the girl and started making his way back to the Big House, the wolves still stuck at the top of the hill. I kept my eye on them as I started following Chiron.

When we got back to the Big House, Chiron set her up on a bed in the corner, the girl half conscious.

"How'd a barrier get there?" I asked.

"Here, Percy, can you move her head a little to the side for me?"

"Oh, yeah, sure."

I moved the girl's head onto the pillow.

"The barrier was placed there when the camp was first formed," Chiron explained. "It was put there by the gods so that their children would have somewhere safe to live, away from all of the monsters."

The girl moaned and closed her eyes.

"Do you still want me to go see the oracle?"

Chiron shook his head. "No, not right now. Perhaps later this evening, after dinner."

I nodded as I ran off to look for Thalia and Luke. I crashed right into them the moment I left the Big House.

"Ow," said Thalia, rubbing her forehead where a bruise would most likely appear soon. "Percy, what happened?"

"Yeah," said Luke. "We heard something going on up at the hill. It sounded really serious."

"Inside," I replied.

They both nodded at the same time as they entered, me following.

"Please, not right now, children," said Chiron. "This girl needs her rest."

"N-no, I don't," said the blond haired girl.

"Do you know where you are?" asked Chiron.

She thought about it for a moment. "…Camp Half-Blood, right?"

"Yes, yes, that's correct. What's your name?"

"…Annabeth."

Chiron studied Annabeth closely. "Hmm… blond hair and gray eyes. Must be one of Athena's."

Annabeth shook her head, even though it looked like it pained her to do so. "…No, not Athena…"

"Then who?"

Annabeth, after some struggling, managed to sit all the way up. "Let me formally introduce myself: Annabeth Chase, daughter of Odin."

**AN: Hope you guys and girls like the little twist there I put at the end. I would also like to apologize for the length of time between this update and the last one. It's just that I've been way busy with school (and Grand Theft Auto V!) to have been able to work on this. From now on, it'll probably be longer between updates, but I hope to make the chapters much longer. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Stay tuned!**

**Percy Jackson is owned by Rick Riordan.**


	6. Beginnings

**Percy**

And I thought the Greeks would be confusing enough, let alone Romans _and_ Norse.

Every time somebody told something about the Greeks, no matter how weird it was, it never surprised me. I don't know why, but it just never did. So when Annabeth goes and drops that her dad is Odin, well… everyone was surprised, including Chiron.

Apparently, Annabeth had been chased all the way across the United States from San Francisco by wolves. Occasionally, she would lose them and be able to rest for a few hours, but they somehow ended up finding her again, so she would begin to run. It may have been that one of the wolves chasing her split up from the rest of the pack and that could have been what we fought in the forest in Chesapeake Bay.

When I asked Chiron about there being other gods, he said that all he knew was that there were the Greek gods and their younger Roman aspects. He said that he had a feeling that there were other gods, but nothing had been known… At least not until Annabeth Chase showed up.

"So, wait let me get this right," said Luke, sitting down in the Big House with me, Chiron, Thalia, and Annabeth, who was still recovering from the attack in the bed at the back of the building. Mr. D was probably out chasing a nymph or something along those lines. "You're telling me that not only are there Greek and Roman gods, but Norse ones too?" He took a deep breath and ran his hands through his sandy blond hair. "Anything else?"

Chiron shook his head. "No. Even _I _didn't know about the Norse. Sure, I had an inkling that there may be other gods, but I always thought that if there were, they would have been smaller, less powerful gods, but the Asgardians…"

"I'm sorry," I put in. "The who?"

"A pantheon of powerful Nordic gods. The Norsemen weren't as straightforward in their mythology as the Greeks were with theirs. Allow me to rephrase that. The Norsemen's mythology follows a linear series of events, but it's so broad and expansive, it can be difficult for mortals to keep up with it. For example, there are many more Nordic gods than there are Greek, and even still, they're split up into several pantheons, the most well known and most powerful being the Asgardians, Asgard basically being their equivalent of Mount Olympus."

"So aside from Annabeth, are there any other Asgardian demigods?" asked Thalia.

"She is the first I've ever known," said Chiron. "Actually, her being here is the first I've ever known of the Asgardians even existing in the first place. However, if Annabeth takes after her father, she may be quite… _potent."_

"How so?"

"Well, for starters, he's king of the Asgardians, but on top of that, he is also the god of wisdom, battle, magic, war, and prophecies among others. Even if Annabeth only inherited a fraction of what her father is capable of, then the question isn't how powerful she is. The question is _how _powerful she is."

"So what do we do?" I asked, Annabeth groaning and drooling in her sleep.

"Well, for now, we should deal with the matter at hand… which involves seeing the Oracle of Delphi for information regarding a certain Olympian weapon of mass destruction."

"Oh… right. Yeah, that."

"Are you prepared for this, Percy?"

"As much as I'll ever be, I suppose." I rose from my chair, preparing for the worst.

Thalia quickly got out of her seat and squeezed my tightly. "Just… be careful, okay?"

"Can't… breathe…" I choked out.

She released her death grip… hug thing, and went to go stand by Luke, blushing slightly.

"We have your back, man," said Luke.

"Thanks," I nodded, bracing myself, going up four flights of stairs before I came to the attic.

I took a deep breath and pulled on the cord, a ladder creaking and extending downward. I began my climb to the attic and pulled myself up.

A bunch of demigod junk was lying on tables and shelves, like broken swords and dented shields and melted and/or bitten pieces of armor. But none of that concerned me. What concerned me was the mummy against the very back wall of the attic wearing a tie-dye dress, as if she were a two thousand-year-old hippie.

I took only two steps forward before the oracle's mouth dropped opened and a line of green mist slithered out like a snake.

_I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask, _said a disembodied voice inside my head, one that wasn't my own.

Taking yet another deep breath, I took a step forward.

**AN: I probably would've written a lot more, but after this scene, there is a huge jump in time, so I figured that I would just post a short update and have the longer chapter posted later. I apologize for the length, but, like I've said before, the past six chapters have merely served as the prologue for the actual plot. The next update will start the story up properly now that the important introductions are out of the way. I'll write and post when I get the chance. As always, thank you for reading!**

**Percy Jackson is owned by Rick Riordan.**


	7. Exordium

**Percy**

_Four years later_

The sound of Riptide and Annabeth's sword clashing in the air was starting to make my ears ring much more than they should. In fact, they shouldn't even be ringing at all. You would think that after four years of doing this kind of stuff I would be used to it, and for the most part, I was. Unless I was fighting Annabeth. She could hit. Hard.

She was also one of the best swordsmen (swordswomen?) in Camp Half-Blood, third only to me and Luke. Her sword hit Riptide with a metallic _clank, _making my right arm go partially numb for a few seconds_. _

"Better start paying attention, Seaweed Brain."

"Yeah, yeah," I muttered.

Her father, Odin, was a god of both battle _and _wisdom, which gave her a _huge _edge in combat. It was pretty unfair. She could always predict my moves, even the ones I thought were pretty _un_predictable. I decided that the best way to outsmart her was to not plan anything at all. Everything I did was done on the fly, and most of the time it worked. I guess the randomness was the _real_ unpredictable part of my sort-of strategy.

Although it was only practice, I was determined to win. The battle started to drift towards the water cooler. Perfect. I focused on that one point. Suddenly, I felt a tugging sensation in my gut. The top of the cooler exploded, the water crashing into Annabeth's face. While she was distracted, I got I hit in with my elbow, making her fall down on her butt. Riptide was at her throat, her wet blonde hair obscuring part of her face.

She rolled her eyes. "All right, you win."

I removed Riptide, capped it, and placed it in the pocket of my jeans. I offered her a hand, which she accepted. I hauled her to her feet as she brushed the dirt off of her pants.

"Good fight, Jackson."

I nodded. "Aren't they always, with us?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, I guess, but they always sort of end up being the same. The cooler, though. That was something new. I'm surprised you never thought about it before. For the longest time, I always suspected that you would use it, but after a long period of time, you never did and I just sort of forgot about it. You actually caught me off guard."

"Glad to hear that I actually impressed you."

"Whoa, whoa, I never said anything about being impressed," she said with a sly smile.

"No, but it was definitely implied."

"I don't think-"

"Ladies, ladies," said Thalia, entering the arena, "you're both pretty. Now will you please stop fighting?"

"We weren't fighting," said Annabeth. "We were having an, err, argument."

Thalia shrugged. "Same difference." Her face darkened. "Anyways, Percy, it's Grover… he's missing."

Oh, man. It's been months since I last saw Grover. After last summer, when some unknown demigod tried to get Kronos's army of monsters to camp by using the Labyrinth, we found the god of the wild, Pan, dying (The destruction of the Labyrinth set Kronos's plans back considerably). After the battle of the Labyrinth, Grover had gone all over the United States, trying to spread Pan's message. Every once in a while, he would give us an update as to how he was doing, sometimes weeks or months apart, but… _missing?_

"What do you mean Grover is missing?"

"It's been months since we've heard anything from him, but I don't think he's… well… you know."

"Dead? I know he's not dead. We have an empathy link. If something bad like that happened to Grover, I would know. I just had no idea that he was missing… it's weird… Do you remember when we had to find the Golden Fleece because our barriers were failing?"

"Uh, _yeah, _I remember. It was kind of my dad's tree."

"Well, around that time, Grover created an empathy link with me. I was always having these weird visions about him. That's how I knew something was wrong. Recently, I haven't been having any dreams at all, and even if I don't have dreams, I always feel a sort of… presence, I guess. I don't feel anything now."

"Do you think that it may be a side effect of when you lost your memories, even though you got them back years ago?" Annabeth offered.

I shook my head. Even to this day, even though I fully regained my memories, I still had no idea what had caused it. "No, that's not it… Thalia's right. Grover's missing. I would still be able to feel something, but I'm not. It's like he's just… gone."

"Does Chiron know about it?"

"Yeah, he was the first one to tell me," said Thalia. "He learned it from Grover's girlfriend. What was her name… oh, yeah, Juniper. Juniper said that Grover always contacts her at least twice a week. She said that it's been over a month since she's heard anything." She suddenly stifled a scream. "Gods, don't do that! Last time, I honestly think I had a mini heart attack."

"What is it?" I called.

A dark figured rounded the corner. It was somebody I didn't expect.

A dark T-Shirt covered with an aviator's jacket, messy hair, a skull ring, Stygian iron sword, and grim expression. Nico di Angelo emerged from the shadows of a tree. Literally emerged.

He rubbed his arm and briefly looked down at the ground. "…hey, Percy."

I still didn't know what kind of terms we were on. Last summer, we kind of made up. He eventually forgave me for his sister's death a few winters ago when Annabeth, Grover, Thalia and a hunter of Artemis named Zoë Nightshade were on a mission to find Artemis after she had been kidnapped. Zoë didn't make it back to camp.

"Hey, Nico… don't take this the wrong way, but why exactly are you here?"

"It's about Grover. There's something wrong. When somebody dies, I know. I also know about the empathy link you two share, so you too would know whether he's alive or… dead. This is just something too weird for me to pass over."

"Yeah, the empathy link's been pretty quiet for a long time. I honestly forgot about it because it's been so long since I've seen or felt anything."

"The last time he contacted you, do you know where he was?"

Annabeth spoke up. "He sent us an Iris-message from Central Park. That's only a few hours away."

Nico whistled. From the shadows leapt a garbage truck sized hellhound, Mrs. O'Leary.

"WOOF!"

"Nice to see you too, girl," I said, affectionately rubbing behind her ears. "What's she doing here?" I directed to Nico.

"Shadow travel," he replied.

I got his meaning. "So how many people are going?"

"Mrs. O'Leary and I can only take two."

Annabeth shook her head. "I'll stay, Percy. You and Thalia should go. If all three of us are missing, Chiron or Mr. D might think that something's up, since that's the way it normally is. If I stay, they might not ask any questions. If they do, for some reason, I'll make up an excuse."

"Come on, Percy," urged Thalia. "We don't have time to argue."

"She's right," said Nico. "With the way things work around demigods, now that we might know where Grover is, he might be in danger."

"I've got dibs on O'Leary," called Thalia, climbing up the hellhound's back.

With the speeds she went, it was always dangerous when shadow traveling with Mrs. O'Leary, so we made it a rule that only one person could ride her at a time.

I stepped by Nico, who awkwardly put his hand in mine. He looked away, embarrassed. I didn't blame him. "You ready, Percy?"

"Yeah, let's go find Grover."

"All right, Mrs. O'Leary," he yelled at the hellhound.

"WOOF!"

We disappeared in a swirl of darkness, Nico and I going so fast that it felt as if my skin would start to peel off. We came to an abrupt stop. It seemed like my organs were slowly putting themselves back in order as I took a few experimental steps to get accustomed to walking normally. Less than a second later, Mrs. O'Leary appeared from the shadow of a nearby tree. Thalia slid off of her back.

"Anything, Percy?" she asked, her blue eyes scanning the trees of Central Park.

I slowly shook my head. "No, there's nothing… wait." There was something at the edge of my mind. I wasn't sure what it was, but it was definitely something. Finally, the feeling grew until it felt like it encompassed half of my brain. "There's something here. It's hard to tell whether or not it's my empathy link. It doesn't really feel like it, but at the same time it does. I don't know how to explain it."

Nico nodded. "Does it feel like it's sort of pointing in a certain direction?"

I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate. It _did _feel like it was going in some sort of direction, but I couldn't tell what direction it was. It constantly changed direction. Once time it was north, and when I tried to orientate my mind that way, it turned south. When I got south, it went northwest, and so on. Finally, I just stopped altogether. "Yeah, there's definitely a direction, but it's constantly changing. I have no idea what's going on."

Nico considered it for a moment. "Then he might not be here."

"So what do we do now?"

"Perhaps I should elaborate." Nico paused for dramatic effect. "He's here, but he's not here… in Central Park." Then a look crossed his face, but I had a feeling that it had nothing to do with Grover.

"What's that supposed to mean?" said Thalia.

"Come on, we need to get back to Camp Half-Blood." He shook his head. "This is much worse than I thought."

"What's going on?" I asked.

"It's not just Grover anymore. This is serious, Percy."

All four of us shadow traveled back to Camp Half-Blood, arriving back in the arena. Nico was exhausted. "We… need… to… get… to… Chiron," he said between breaths.

"But what's going on?" I asked again.

"Chiron… can… explain…" He stood up straight and waited a few seconds before he answered without pausing. "The realms are converging." He fell back against a tree and shook his head. "I need to rest for a minute. You need to go to Chiron and tell him what I just said."

"But what do you mean the realms are converging?"

"Like I said, Chiron can explain. Just… go, all right? I'll catch up in a little bit."

Thalia and I nodded and started making our way up to the Big House. Annabeth was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Mr. D at the house on the top of the hill. Chiron was just heading out the moment we got there.

"Ah, Percy, Thalia. Anything I can do for you two?"

"It's Nico," said Thalia. "He wanted us to tell you something about the realms converging… whatever that means."

Chiron's face darkened. "I see…" He looked over the hill where Zeus's offering, the tree that protected Camp Half-Blood's border, was planted.

"What does it mean?"

"It's… well, to simply put it, it's very bad. It involves Annabeth, to some degree at least."

"Involves her how?"

Chiron urged us inside. We followed and took a seat as he closes his eyes and took a deep breath. "Upon learning of the Asgardians, I found that they are tied in with the earth more so than either the Greeks or Romans. Far more than you could ever imagine. I discovered an ancient prophecy foretold by her father, Odin. It involves the birth of a child of Odin, so he must know this more than anyone. Annabeth's birth has, essentially, started the apocalypse."

Thalia and I both stare at him blankly. "Um," I said, "it doesn't _look _like the apocalypse is happening."

"I should be clearer. The apocalypse will happen in Annabeth's lifetime, _your _lifetime. And it is not just the destruction of the earth, but the cosmos altogether."

"Wait, what are you talking about? What cosmos? Like, space, or something?"

"It involves the realms. There are nine total, not including Olympus, which is something else entirely. It encompasses the entire Norse universe. Some of the realms intersect with ours."

I could barely remember what he taught me about the other nine realms. Greek and Roman was hard to keep up with as it was. "Like how?"

"For example, Hel –one L –is connected to the Underworld, much in the same way Tartarus is. In fact, there are several entrances to Hel, one being hidden somewhere in the Underworld, the other in the deepest part of Tartarus. The only means of transportation to the other realms is the Rainbow Bridge, or the Bifrost. And that's where this is coming into play. Part of the prophecy is the Bifrost's constantly shrinking size. It is bringing the realms closer and closer until they ultimately collide. But that's only part of the problem. A very, very _small _part of the problem."

I gulped. "What's the other part?"

"I'm still deducing parts of it myself, but it involves the return of someone fallen, not unlike Kronos."

"But Kronos is still a huge problem," said Thalia. "Shouldn't we take care of him first before we worry about the Bifrost, or whatever it is? That seems like the closer threat."

Chiron shook his head. "This being, whoever it is, will make Kronos look like a butterfly compared to Ladon. There is no competition. Whoever this person or being is will be infinitely more powerful than Kronos will ever be, the problem being we don't know who or what it is that will be returning."

"Is there any way to stop whoever it is from returning?" Of all of the prophecies I had heard, they were always twisted in some way, often having double meanings… Then again, those were Greek prophecies. I had a feeling that Norse were completely different.

"Of the parts I have figured out, it basically, and very plainly, states that _this will_ come to pass. There is no way for us to stop it. It will happen. And if the past is something to go by, taking Annabeth's age into account, it will most likely happen soon."

Thalia isn't one to scare easily, but I heard her breath shaking. Sitting next to me, I was barely aware of her slipping her hand into mine as the air around us literally got colder.

Chiron lifted himself slightly. "And I fear we may have even less time than I thought."

**AN: It's been a long time. I'm sorry for that. I've just spent the past 30 days writing, and revising three times, a 105K word novel. In that time, I kind of got burnt out on writing anything, but then I suddenly felt the urge to write again. Not to sound repetitive, but I have no idea when the next update will be. I'll write when I can. In the meantime, if you know people on FanFiction, let them know about my story. Spread the word! Keep those reviews coming. For the few of you who have read my story so far, thank you so much. You guys are awesome! I hope you have enjoyed it so far. And once again, thanks for reading!**

**Percy Jackson is owned by Rick Riordan.**


	8. Father of the Wolf

**AN: Woo, longest chapter to date! Anyway, I just wanted to give you guys a heads up: from this point on, the series will get much darker in tone, at least darker than anything in **_**Percy Jackson**_** and the **_**Heroes of Olympus **_**series. While it's not going to be **_**A Song of Ice and Fire, **_**I think that, if I follow the outline I have planned out for a series I never started writing, then it will be at least darker than something along the lines of, say, **_**Harry Potter. **_**However, unlike some of the stories on this website, which are dark simply for the sake of being dark, the tone is here for a reason.**__**Again**_**, **_**just wanted to give a heads up. Thanks.**

**Percy**

I'm still not sure what that sudden drop in temperature was. It was as if the most violent winter in years had just decided to come by and freak us out for a few seconds. Whatever the case, it scared everyone, meaning me and Thalia, in the room. Even Chiron looked seriously disturbed, but he never told us if it had some significance, especially given the subject we were discussing. I mean, we _were _talking about the end of the world after all and how there was no way we could prevent it from happening.

Thalia literally stormed her way to the pavilion for dinner, little flashes of lightning dancing around her head.

"Gods, what's you problem?" I said, walking by her side.

"I'm just pissed," she replied, jamming her hands into her pockets. She calmed down slightly. "It just seems like nobody tells us anything here. I'm almost positive Chiron knows exactly who we were talking about, but he's just holding it back. I mean, I know that he legitimately cares about us, but I'm getting sick and tired of all this secrecy."

I nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean." I kicked a random rock in the grass. "It's just that when he does things like this, he usually has his reasons."

"I know, but still, I think that he can give us some kind of warning for what we're going to have to fight, whenever that's going be."

We entered the dining pavilion. The large brazier in the center of the room was already burning bright, but nobody has lined up yet to offer their food. At first, I thought that the food hadn't been served yet, which would make the most sense, but I saw food at everyone's table. Annabeth shared a table with the children of Athena, who made her an honorary member because her intelligence often matched, or in some cases surpassed, that of the cabin. Also, we didn't have a cabin dedicated to Odin, so we just sort of stuck her in one.

I was about to ask what happened when I took a step and slipped on ice, which covered the entire floor. Thalia caught my hand and helped me back up.

"What's going on?" I could suddenly feel the drop in temperature. It was at least in the lower thirties… in July. Goosebumps appeared on my arm. My breath appeared in front of me. Suddenly, everything went away. Everything appeared normal. All eyes were on Annabeth, who just sat there, dumbstruck. Finally, it seemed like she couldn't take the silence anymore and got up and ran towards the hill, the cabins on the other side. Conversation started to pick up slowly before the nymphs came into the pavilion and started serving the food, the voices steadily growing louder until the volume was at where it normally would be at. All the while, Thalia and I remained where we were, still having no idea as to what just happened.

"Come on," I said. "Let's go see what's up with Annabeth."

Thalia followed as I climbed the hill and headed off towards the U shape some distance off, the sun just falling behind the horizon, snuffing out the last rays of light. Luckily, we could practically navigate our way around this place in the dark, seeing as we've done it before several times.

We could see a light behind one of the windows in Athena's cabin, the light dulled slightly by the drapes. I knocked lightly on the door.

"Annabeth?' Thalia called out. She walked up next to me and knocked again. "Annabeth? Come on, let us in."

A few moments later, I heard an almost inaudible sound from behind the door –Annabeth unlocked the door.

I grasped the celestial bronze doorknob and turned it, slowly opening the door with a good heap of trepidation. I saw her lying on a bed in the corner of the room, staring blankly up at the ceiling. Books, maps, weapons, and computer monitors were set up on desks lining the room. A set of fully stocked bookshelves rested against the far left wall.

Thalia brushed past me and sat at the foot of Annabeth's bed. She waited a while before saying something. "You all right?"

Annabeth slowly nodded, not saying a word.

"It doesn't seem like it."

Annabeth sighed. "I hate it. I hate being a demigod. I thought being one in the normal was bad enough. I always stuck out and it seemed for a while that that might have changed here, but after four years, I was clearly wrong."

Thalia shot me a look that seemed to say, _Help!_

I walked towards the bed and pulled a chair out from underneath one of the many desks and pushed it close to Annabeth and Thalia. I took a seat and said, "Look, Annabeth… you're our best friend, all right? Everybody here cares about you. Even Clarisse, even if she won't admit it. Well, she respects you at least." Thalia elbowed me in the ribs. "Uh, anyway," I added quickly, "what I'm trying to say is that people here care about you. Sure, you may be a little different from everyone else, but you can't help it. Everybody else here can't help who they are either. We were just born this way. We have to make the best out of things with what we have. We've been doing that for years and I think that you've been doing it the best out of everyone else."

Annabeth remained unmoving. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she sat up and embraced both me and Thalia tightly. When she let go, she got up and paced around the room. "…Chiron told me about the prophecy. I know he told both of you too. None of us know the exact details, but we know the basics… and it involves you somehow, Percy."

I was taken aback. "What? What do I have to do with this?"

She shrugged. "I don't know, but Chiron found references to the sea god… and sky god."

Thalia stood up. "How do you know it's about us though? Couldn't it be about those gods but Norse?"

Annabeth shook her head. "No, Chiron said that the way they were written, it specifically refers to the Greeks. This prophecy is about all three of us, not just me."

"What are we supposed to do?"

"I don't know." She rubbed her temples and picked up a book off of a desk, absentmindedly flipping through the pages. "I don't even think Chiron knows. He, along with the Olympians, have been looking into this thing for the past four years, which isn't really a lot to them, but anyway, they don't know what steps they're supposed to take to prepare for this."

"There's not really much we can prepare for," I said pessimistically, being a downer. "This thing is going to happen no matter what."

"But there's obviously more to the prophecy. _Way _more to it. This apocalypse, it's supposed to be the battle that decides the fate of everything in the universe. While it's going to happen for sure, we don't know what the outcome will be. Basically, it's like the Fates are going to flip a coin to decide what happens to everyone."

"So not even the Fates know what's going to happen?"

"Don't know. Maybe. Look, that's not the point right now. What we need to focus one is what we're going to do when it comes."

"So just train?" asked Thalia. "Basically what we've been doing to prepare for Kronos's attack on Mount Olympus?"

"I don't think that's going to cut it. There must be more we're supposed to be doing…"

"…Did you have a dream last night?"

"It was two nights ago, actually. I had this dream about a jar, which I thought was weird, so I didn't say anything."

"A jar?" I asked skeptically. "What's so important about a jar?"

"That's the thing… it's not a jar. It's a pithos."

"A what?" said Thalia.

"Well, it's basically like a jar. That's not the point. It's Pandora's."

"You mean, like… _Pandora, _Pandora? As in Pandora's Box?"

"It's a pithos, actually. It was just mistranslated as box."

"So what's the jar have to do with anything?" I took out Riptide in pen form and nimbly flipped it between my fingers, Thalia's eyes focused on it, flipping back and forth, until she shook her head, realizing she was being distracted, and turned her attention back to Annabeth.

"You know the story about it, right?"

"Yeah, she opened it when she wasn't supposed to and let out all of the evils into the world. She only managed to save hope when she closed it again. Again, what does that have to do with anything?"

"I think that whoever our enemy is, he's going to find the jar and release hope so that nobody puts up a fight. We need to find it before he does."

"Where are we going to find it at?" asked Thalia. "We've got no idea where to even begin."

"Pandora is in the Underworld right now, so who do you think the pithos would fall to?"

Thalia thought about it for a moment before Annabeth became impatient, despite the fact that Thalia had only been thinking about it for no longer than five seconds.

"_Prometheus. _He would have the jar. He's the only one I can think of that would have it, or at least know where it is."

"Where are we supposed to find him?"

"…I don't know."

When Annabeth brought up Prometheus, I immediately had an idea as to where he could be. "Well, I remember seeing this building in downtown Manhattan. Big silver letters near the top that said Promethean Industries."

"That might not mean anything, Percy." Annabeth set the book back down on the desk. "Even today, Prometheus is hugely influential. Somebody probably just named the company that because they thing that Prometheus stands for forward thinking."

"You got any better ideas?"

"…No."

"So is it settled?"

"I'll have to ask Chiron if we can-"

Suddenly, I could hear shouting outside. Yelling. Screaming. The familiar sound of steel clashing violently against steel. "What was that?" I uncapped Riptide and opened the door.

In the distance, I could make out demigods fighting of hundreds of monsters on the hill in the reflective light of a fire set off in the trees lining the entrance to Camp Half-Blood. Nymphs and dryads were running back and forth carrying and passing buckets of water. Most shocking of all, Mr. D was actually doing something to help, something none of us had seen before, using vines to trip up monsters and turn them into miniature grave vineyards. The only thing I had seen him done out of selflessness was cure Chris Rodriguez, who had gone insane in the Labyrinth the previous year.

There was an explosion in the trees, sending up bright growing flames. Fortunately, as ridiculous as that sounds, it wasn't Greek fire, meaning that it was possible to be put out.

We charged the hill, weapons at the ready. How mortals weren't seeing this, I had no idea. But then again, we were at the very tip of Long Island, so there's that. As we got closer and closer to the hill, I realized that several of the monsters had reached the other side, meaning that they were somehow getting past the barrier.

Chiron was the first person, or in this case centaur, we ran into. He pulled out several arrows, placed them in his bow hand, took one, fired it, and then immediately fired the rest in quick succession, all in a matter of less than two seconds.

"Chiron," I yelled over the roar of the battle not fifteen feet away. "What's going on? Who's attacking? Is it Kronos?"

"No," he replied, firing off more arrows, all of which magically regenerated in his sheath slung over his back. "It's much worse." He didn't elaborate any further as he ran up the hill, galloping along the crest of it, firing off at whatever it was on the other side. When we reached the top of the hill, I saw what we were up against.

Dozens of blue giants, exactly like the one we fought in Manhattan all those years ago, (which I had since learned were called both frost giants and Jotun) were the furthest from the hill, crossing the road on the other side. I'm sure there's a chicken joke in there somewhere. Some, however, had gotten closer to the hill than most of the others. They, along with the dozens of pitch-black wolves swarming around their feet, were causing the most damage.

One of the wolves pounced a demigod, who I recognized as Pollux, a son of Dionysus, was pinned down, but was quickly freed as an arrow pierced the side of the wolf's neck. Michael Yew nodded as he changed branches in one of the trees, picking off several more wolves.

Annabeth, Thalia, and I joined the fray. Thalia quickly dispatched one of the frost giants, our training over the past four years showing how much we improved. Annabeth, who could summon her weapon just by willing it to appear, drove the sword deep into the mouth of a wolf, which turned to black fog and dissipated into the grass. Far off to my right, Clarisse La Rue drove her spear into a row of three wolves, piercing them all at the same time. They evaporated around the shaft as she turned and fought off a Jotun.

I saw what was causing the source of the explosion: another Colchis Bull. This time, there was only one. It roared and another blast of fire shot forth, completely shattering a tree, destroying a nymph's lifeline. I yelled and sprinted forward, putting several gashes into the bronze plating. The bull roared again and spun around, implanting one of its horns into the grass, and snapped its head up, knocking me onto my butt. I jumped to my feet and, after quickly taking care of a wolf that got a little too far into my personal space, completely severed one of the bull's legs with one powerful swing of Riptide. It loud out a sound that seemed like a strange cross between a cry and a yell. Its amputated limb only helped a little as the bull still had three fully operational legs left. I cut off the tip of one of the horns, but the bull still managed to lift my up by the hem of my shirt and throw me high into the air, at least thirty feet.

As gravity caused my descent, I dropped Riptide, stuck my arms out, caught a tree branch, and just barely managed to catch my sword as it met me at the branch. I balanced precariously on the wood and, when the pull was preoccupied battling another demigod, I fell forward and jammed Anaklusmos straight into the bull's forehead. I let go, the sword still stuck, and ran, along with every other demigod in a twenty-five foot radius, behind the crest of the hill as the Colchis Bull exploded, taking out dozens of monsters within its vicinity, making our job considerably easier.

At least for the time being.

Dozens of humanoid creatures emerged from dark spots in the ground. Armored skeletons layered with organs, meat, and transparent skin lumbered forward. For a split second, I thought it was Nico, but several factors told me it wasn't him: first off, every time Nico summoned skeletons from the underworld, they always appeared from fissures in the ground. Second, Nico only summoned _skeletons, _not zombies, or in this case draugr –essentially Nordic zombies. Third, Nico had taken off to gods know where earlier in the afternoon. Fourth, and most incriminating of all, the draugr were attacking us.

I charged into a cluster of them, Thalia taking a few out from a distance. I lopped of two of their heads at once. One lifted its sword arm to swing down at me, but I cut the hand off. It released the sword and landed on my arm, crawling around. It took all I had not to scream like a girl as I hurriedly picked it off my shirt and threw it into the mob of monsters further down the hill. With many of the other monsters dead, only a few Jotun and wolves remaining, most of the demigods went to work taking out the highly numbered draugr, which appeared to be considerably easier, despite the fact that the draugr outnumbered all of the dead monsters combined.

Several of the larger zombies put up a better fight than the others, however. One that was at least two or three times larger than the others charged ahead through a path cleared by the swarm. At advanced on me and Thalia, Luke and Annabeth dealing with another draugr of similar size. The large draugr lifted its four and a half foot long sword and swung it down hard, Thalia and I just barely able to dodge to the side as the sword sent up a shower of grass and dirt. It wasn't long before the zombie raised its sword again, this attacking hitting closer to me than Thalia. As the monster was about to swing again, I leaped around him and took off his other arm, which, seeing as the sword was in his other hand, I doubted that it actually helped in any way. I imagined the draugr saying "Tis but a scratch," but then it swung the sword and nearly took my head off. I dodged and caught his blade with mine as he slashed again. I poured all of my strength into my arm as his blade slid up and veered off to the side and I cut down, taking off his other arm. He stood there missing both arms and tried ramming me with his head. It's just a flesh wound. With ease, I decapitated him and Thalia and I ran to assist Annabeth, but the draugr was already dead.

"Nice," I complemented, breathless.

"Not so bad yourself," she replied as another, much smaller wave of draugr stormed the hill.

We charged them and slammed into them like violent waves crashing upon rocks, and they were quickly thrown back, their numbers dwindling every passing moment. Soon enough, and less than two dozen remained. They were quickly dispatched as the tree fires were finally put out and some of the more grievously wounded demigods were shuttled to the camp infirmary on stretchers pulled by satyrs, dryads, nymphs and other demigods.

When the last draugr was down, we thought we were done, and in a technical sense we were, but something happened that made things so much worse than they already were.

A shimmering, slightly transparent being appeared in the field of carnage before us. He was tall, maybe six and a half feet, had a pale complexion, a raised nose and high cheekbones, and golden hair that went to his shoulders. He wore some kind of black armor with a blood red cloak flecked with green draped over his shoulders. The man appeared to have a mischievous smile on his face, like he knew something that we didn't, or he was like a middle school student who just got away with a horrible prank. He stood absolutely still, the same as the demigods around me.

Finally, Annabeth broke the silence. "Who are you? What do you want from us?"

"What I want from you is your life, Odin's bitch, and I will have it in time."

Thalia held me back from shoving Riptide into the dude's face, not unlike the Colchis Bull I had taken out earlier.

The smile adorning the man's face morphed into a clearly evil smirk. Still addressing Annabeth, he said, "Yes, I am the father of _your _father's steed Sleipnir, the goddess Hel, the World Serpent Jormungand, and the wolf Fenrir." He must have seen the look of terror crossing her face, because his smirk spread even further. "My name is Loki, Annabeth Chase, and I've come here to tell you of your impending death."

Nobody aside from Annabeth did so much as twitch a muscle.

Loki's form shimmered again. "Unfortunately, due to my current… _predicament, _I am unable to act upon my promise, but know that it will happen. It will not be at my hands, but it will be my hand the drives the one who will end you."

I hurled Riptide at Loki, but it just passed right through him. He turned to me. "Ah, yes. The _almighty_ son of the sea god. Good to see that you have the intelligence of a dimwitted ant. Your time will come soon, same as hers." His eyes flashed from gold to black and then back again. "My time is running short, just as yours is. However, mine is running short on my damnation. Yours is quite the opposite." He was addressing the camp as a whole now. His tone became less taunting and more threatening, more menacing; simply more _evil_. "Your pathetic camp will fall. Your cities will freeze and burn. Nothing will be left. No _one _will be left. You and the gods will all bow and fall before me and beg for your life as I sit upon the ruins of Asgard, but I will only give you death. Death is the only thing you will receive, and even that will be a great mercy, far more than you deserve. But you, Perseus Jackson, will suffer most of all." He slowly approached the hill, my eyes not even blinking once. When he spoke with the same threatening tone, I knew that I was the only one who could hear him. "You will watch everything and everyone you love burn and fall at your feet. Only after witnessing your world set ablaze and the blood of those who loves you run between your feet will I kill you. Only then…" The spectral Loki disappeared as a wind blew through the trees, sending a chill through my body.

For a long time after Loki left, we still stood in shock. Nobody knew what to say. Not even I or the Stolls had a snide remark. The light from the stars and the moon seemed to dull slightly, making the world darker than it actually was before lighting back up again, like the world simply blinked.

I turned around. Everyone was ghostly pale. I imagined that I looked the same. Annabeth, Luke, and Thalia stared at me as I ascended the hill. I was dimly aware of them following behind me, their footsteps loud in the grass. I was subconsciously headed for the Big House, not really sure of where else to go. Perhaps Chiron could enlighten us. Maybe Mr. D. Okay, now I _know _I was crazy. Loki's speech had definitely gotten to me, and I could tell by the looks on everyone else's face that it had gotten to them too. Just his _voice _radiate absolute power, far more so than Kronos's, which I had heard last year right before the battle of the Labyrinth, where he took Ethan Nakamura, a son of Nemesis, as a corporeal host. He was also the one behind the _Princess Andromeda, _a cruise ship crawling with monsters, a part of Kronos's army. I wondered how long the psychological effects of Loki's attack would stick with everyone. Probably a while.

We all took seats in the center of the Big House. The fire crackled in the fireplace as we just sat there, waiting for either Chiron or even Mr. D to show up. To break up the silence, Luke said, "…So what was that all about?"

Thalia slowly shook her head. "Whatever it was, it clearly had to do with Annabeth and Percy. And, Annabeth, whatever it was that you were thinking about earlier, about the jar, I think that you should make up your mind quick."

After thinking about it for a few seconds and taking a deep breath, Annabeth said, "If we're going to do it, we need to do it as soon as possible."

"You mean like in the morning?" asked Luke.

"No. I mean tonight. After we get some answers."

"_Tonight?"_

Annabeth nodded as if she just said something totally normal.

"Even after all that's happened?' I said.

"I don't know how much time we have," she replied simply, although I could tell that Loki's words were still circling around in her head. Not just hers. Everyone's.

Right as she finished, Chiron trotted into the main room of the Big House, dirt and bits of grass covering his chest and horse end of his body. His bow was still out, but no arrows had been produced. "Annabeth, Percy, are you two all right?"

"I'm fine, thanks for asking," replied Thalia.

Annabeth and I both nodded.

"Chiron," I said. "What's going on? With Loki, with the Asgardians, with _everything?"_

"I am afraid I do not have all the answers," he said, "as much as you would like me to. But Loki's arrival here can mean only one thing –he will rise soon."

"Then what was that out there?" asked Luke. "If he hasn't risen yet, how was he able to appear outside?"

"He wasn't really outside. It was just a projection, but the fact that he has enough strength to do even that is a very, very bad sign. It won't be long before he has fully amassed his strength. Even as we speak, his armies are converging together, much as the realms are. Surtur too is rising from his sleep."

"Surtur?"

"He is the one that will lay waste to the nine realms. After a long winter, he will wake and destroy all in his path. What happens after that, not even the Fates know. It is the _only _thing they do not know."

"So what do we do?" I asked.

"There is a high probability that Loki will commence another attack on Camp Half-Blood. We need to strengthen up our borders and protection. I will have work begin first thing tomorrow morning. As for the demigods, training has to be increased somehow, even more than what we have been doing. I will have a meeting with all the cabin leaders in the morning, before the work on the borders starts."

"Is that all we can do to prepare?" said Thalia. "There is nothing else we can do?"

"None that I can see."

Annabeth and I quickly exchange a look but don't say a word. I don't know if Chiron picked up on it.

"I know that you must all be very tired. Perhaps it would be best if you all got some sleep before dwelling on these matters."

Luke nodded. "Sleep sounds good."

Chiron nodded. "I will keep watch on the borders for the remainder of the night. Do not worry yourself over it." And then he trotted off.

When I was sure Chiron was far away, I said, "Annabeth, why didn't you say anything about Pandora or Prometheus?"

"If I asked and risked it and he said no, then he would be more suspicious of us sneaking out. Besides, if we don't do anything at all, I think things will be worse for everyone… Percy, you know how demigods sometimes have dreams that turn out to be visions of things that are happening?"

I slowly nodded, not really sure where she was going with this.

"I think that me, being a daughter of Odin, who is a major god of prophecy, my visions might be more accurate. I don't exactly know how things work for Greeks, but I just have a feeling we _need _to do this. We don't have a choice. You have to leave tonight."

I take a deep breath and sigh, "All right, but –wait. You said _you… _What are you going to be doing?"

"I think it would be best to stay behind and help with the defenses. I'm one of, if not _the _best strategists here. They need my help. And the prophecy isn't just about me anymore, Percy. It's about you too. This is something you should take care of. I have the brains, you have the strength. I think it works best for everyone this way."

"I'll stay too," said Luke. "Kind of like Annabeth, I'm the best swordsman in camp, and one of the best leaders. If there's a battle while you're away, Annabeth and I need to be able to work together."

"So that just leaves me and Percy," said Thalia. "Only two on a quest. Isn't that, like, bad luck or something?"

"Well," said Annabeth, "this isn't technically an _official _quest. I don't know if those rules apply. It doesn't matter. This needs to be done one way or another. Percy, Thalia… you guys in?"

Thalia and I nodded at the same time. "Like you said," I said with some reluctance, "it needs to be done… one way or another."

"Right… You two need to get your things together and be ready to leave within the hour."

"But how are we supposed to get to Manhattan?" asked Thalia. "It's, like, two and a half hours away, and that's by car."

"Percy," Annabeth addressed to me, "do you think you could get some hippocampi to take you there?"

I shook my head. "There's no way. They can't handle the water of the East River. It's not clean enough for them. It could make them seriously sick. But I do have another idea that should work."

"Are you positive?"

"About ninety percent. It depends on how much Thalia weighs."

"Jackson…" Thalia warned, but I ignored her.

Annabeth nervously messed with her hair. "Well, whatever your plan is, you need to be ready. Come on, let's go back to the cabins."

When we got back to the U, Annabeth and Luke went into their respective cabins, with Thalia and I waiting at the edge of the large clearing.

"Percy," she said silently, as if she didn't trust her voice to speak. "Of all the things we done, this is the thing that I think might finally kill us… I'm actually afraid. I think Pandora's jar is only a small part of this. It's a small part of something bigger… We probably won't come back alive."

I put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Come on, you shouldn't say things like that." _Even if they're true. _"Besides, it's like that every time we go out on a quest. This isn't anything different."

"Yes it is, Percy. This is totally different. This is end of days stuff. Literally. If we don't succeed, everyone is going to die. The way things are sounding with this prophecy, it sounds like most, if not all, of us are going to end up dead." When I couldn't come up with some sort of response, she just said, "Come on, let's get ready."

She entered her bunk, I went into mine. I pulled out my backpack from under my bed and threw whatever I could find in my room in there: some spare clothes, a spare jacket just in case, toothbrush and toothpaste (always needed to be hygienic around your enemies), a full small bottle of soap I found in the deepest, darkest part of under my bed, flashlight, extra batteries, matches, nectar and ambrosia in Ziploc bags, and a spare bag full of cash, maybe five hundred bucks, for emergencies only. I figured this counted as one. I pulled the pack onto my shoulders and poked my head outside. Thalia was waiting by a tree near Zeus's cabin. I joined up with her.

"So what's your plan?" she asked.

"Follow me," I replied, already heading in the direction of the stables.

Camp Half-Blood was a very different place at night, especially after an attack like the one we just barely won. Hideous harpies roamed around the camp grounds, stopping every once in a while to check something out. I could occasionally hear Chiron's hooves trotting in the grass.

We were about fifty feet away from the stable doors when I pulled Thalia into the bushes.

"What?" she hissed silently. "What is it?"

I pointed through a small gap in the leaves towards a harpy who stopped by the stable doors. She sniffed the air a few times like a raptor, jerking her head this way and that. She stiffened and snapped her head immediately in our direction. My pulse quickened. My hands started to sweat and my heart could clearly be heard in the small space that surrounded me and Thalia. The harpy continued forward towards the shrubs. My hand went into my pockets and produced a pen. I didn't want to fight, but if I had to, so be it.

I was about to uncap Riptide when the harpy was less than ten feet away, but to my amazement, she passed the bushes by mere inches and continued right on past, heading in the direction of the armory and arena. After a minute had passed, I let out a breath I hadn't even realized I was holding. "Okay," I whispered. "Let's get this over with."

I opened the stable doors when we reached them, which were unlocked. They never locked them in case of an emergency.

We slowly crept down the center aisle of the stables, careful not to wake any of the animals up. We stopped once we reached a pen containing a pitch-black Pegasus. While he was initially asleep, he woke up the moment he could detect my presence.

_Yo, what are you doin' here? Don't ya know what time it is?_

"Sorry," I whispered. "It's an emergency. You have to quiet, okay? Chiron can't know we're out here?"

_So I'm guessin' this ain't exactly legal._

"Um, sure, no, whatever. Do you think you can carry the both of us?"

_I don't know. Maybe. Where we goin'?_

"Manhattan."

I could tell Blackjack had just snuffed a whinny.

_You serious? My back would be almost broken. I have no idea how much she weighs anyhow._

"I know, but we don't have any other choice. I know that this could seriously hurt you, but like I said, we don't have any other options. I would ask you to do this otherwise."

Blackjack waited a while before answering. I knew it was only a few seconds, but considering the circumstances, it felt like hours.

_All right, I'll do it, but you better reward me big time when you get back._

"Yeah, sure no problem. Apples and sugar and all that." _If we even do come back._

I unlatched the door to Blackjack's pen. He followed us outside. The moment Thalia and I climbed on his back, her up front and me in the back, Blackjack took off into the night sky, heading east. Thalia squeaked and buried her head into Blackjack's mane. Thalia never squeaks, but I knew she was afraid of heights. However, she knew we had no other choice.

"Just tell me when we get there," she said, her voice muffled by Blackjack's fur.

"Yeah, sure. No problem."

As for me, I felt great, despite being in the sky god's domain. I never really knew why he never struck me out of the sky every time I rode Blackjack, but I know why he didn't do it then.

"Uh, is there anything you want to talk about?" I asked.

_I'm good, boss._

"What's there to talk about?" said Thalia. "Right now… at this particular moment… hundreds of feet in the sky… Oh, gods."

"Please don't throw up."

"I won't… at least don't think I will."

A few minutes later, she slowly moved her face away from Blackjack's main, her face pale. Her short hair whipped wildly in the air as the Pegasus beneath us soared through the sky. She quickly glanced behind, her blue eyes scanning mine before she turned back to face the front.

Blackjack's voice cut into my head._ Mind telling her to ease up a bit? Geez!_

Up here, Thalia was a completely different person. Scared. Little. Afraid. On the ground, totally opposite. Brave. Fearless. Wild, like the ocean… like the ocean.

"Hey Thalia-" I began, but then stopped as I saw the Manhattan skyline beginning to stretch over the horizon. She must have not heard me because she didn't say anything.

"Blackjack," I yelled over the wind. "Go ahead and set us down in Central Park. We'll start from there."

_You got it boss._

No more than twenty minutes later, Blackjack's hooves touched down somewhere near the edge of Central Park. While the park itself was seemingly deserted, I could hear some traffic further away. I rubbed Blackjack on his man and behind his ears. "Thanks so much, man. You have no idea how much you've actually helped us."

He let out a small whinny. _Well, my back is killing me, just like I said it would. You gotta make up for this big time._

I laughed a little. "Don't worry. I will."

He extended his wings, and before he took off, he said, _Hey, boss? Be careful, all right?_

I nodded. "You got it."

He flapped his powerful wings down and shot straight up into the night.

Thalia readjusted the backpack on her shoulders. "So where do we go from here?"

"I think the Promethean Industries building is somewhere along Seventh Avenue, kind of near Times Square."

"We better get moving, then."

"Right."

We had no idea where we were in Central Park, so attempting to guide our way by looking at the moon, which didn't really help much, we headed off towards what we assumed was south. We stuck to one of the many paths in the park, making sure not to go off too far. The park was deceptive. Beautiful during the day, but potentially dangerous at night. There could be a mugger around any of the trees. And, since our weapons only affected monsters and other demigods, there would be no way for us to defend ourselves, unless Thalia's can of Mace could actually be used _as _a can of Mace. If not, all we could do was run.

The volume of the traffic on our sides fluctuated. Sometimes it was loud, but most of the time, we couldn't hear a thing other than the general ambience of New York City, which included _all _of the traffic. It was nearly impossible to judge exactly where we were, so we just stuck to the path.

I thought about what I was going to say to Thalia on the flight over here, but I pushed it out of my head, at least for the time being. We had to focus. On the other hand, nothing was happening at the moment…

Suddenly, Thalia stopped in her tracks and let out a barely audible gasp. "Percy," she said very slowly. "Is… is that… _Grover?"_

"What?" I said, now alert. "What are you talking about? Where?"

She pointed to a small mound resting against a trunk in the shadows of a large tree. The mound was snoring loudly. We both rushed over and crouched down next to the satyr. Grover was asleep, a pleased smile across his face. I put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a light shake. As I did, I was aware that I could no longer feel my empathy link with him. Where ever it was he head gone, it severed the link completely –I could sense a single thing about him.

"Grover," I said, continuing to shake his shoulder a few times.

He groaned and attempted to roll onto his side, but I held him back. "Hey, Grover. Wake up. It's me, Percy. Thalia's here too. What happened? Come on, wake up."

Grover bleated silently before slowly flicking his eyes open. The shot open the moment he caught sight of me. "Oh, my gods, Percy! I missed you. You too, Thalia."

"What happened to you? Where'd you go?"

He blink a few more times. "Oh. Yeah. That. Thing is, I kind of fell into another realm."

"You fell into another realm?"

"Yeah. I don't know how it happened. One moment I was there, the next, I woke up here."

"Grover," Thalia said gravely from behind me. "You've been missing for over two months."

A look crossed his face. "Two… two _months? _Oh, oh, that's not good. Oh, poor Juniper! I have to go right away!"

"Look, just wait a little, okay? I think she can wait at least one more day. First chance we get, you can contact here when there's sunlight. We're not going all the way back to camp. Besides, we're not even supposed to be here… strictly speaking."

Grover looked at both of us. "That sounds like something both of you would do." He smiled a little, but it quickly faded. "Anyway, why are you out here?"

"We're looking for Prometheus," I supplied. "We think he's in an office here, just past Times Square." I filled him in on the rest of the details, including the attack on Camp Half-Blood.

Face paled slightly, Grover said, "All right, well, we better get going if we want to get there, and fast. Central Park can be dangerous, you know."

"Yeah, I know."

We continued down the path until we exited on the other side completely unscathed. We walked down 7th for about twenty-five minutes before we were under the lights of Times Square, the world's largest advertisement.

"Even if we do find the building," said Grover, "how do you think we're going to get to see Prometheus, let alone the jar? He isn't exactly on friendly terms with the Olympians, and I don't think having Thalia with us is going to help things, no offense."

"It's okay," said Thalia. "But still, I don't see why he should judge me because of my dad. It was Zeus who chained him to that rock, not me."

"Immortals can hold grudges for a long time. When they can't have their way, in this case between Zeus and Prometheus, they'll take out their frustration on someone else. Let's just hope he doesn't incinerate us."

We walked a few more blocks before we saw it –a steel building that stretched up at least seventy stories. Small red letters crawled down the side of the building vertically. With my dyslexia, it was a little difficult to decipher, but I already knew what it said. "Promethean Industries." I looked at the entrance, expecting it to be closed, but beyond the revolving door, bright lights shined out through the windows. I could make out a receptionist at the front desk. "Come, let's get this over with," I muttered as I began crossing the street, Grover and Thalia following suit.

I pushed through the revolving door and entered into the main foyer. The entire floor was white and black marble. Columns stretched up at the edges of the room for at least thirty feet, accumulating in a vaulted ceiling covered by a classical painting clearly depicting Prometheus. Several sets of gold elevators rested at the end of the room.

We approached the front desk. A petit woman sat in her chair, a headset in her ear, a gold nametag on her suit jacket that read LAURIE. She tapped something a few times on a keyboard before acknowledging our presence. "Anything I can help you with?"

I was absolutely sure this woman could turn into a monster at any time, but I had to play it cool. I cleared my throat. "Um, yes, is there any way we can schedule a meeting with…"

"Mr. Prometheus?" she provided.

It actually caught me off guard that Prometheus wasn't using some sort of pseudonym, but I guess when you're a Titan millennia old and considered by just about every single person on the planet that you're just a myth, I guess it didn't really matter that much.

"Uh, yes, Mr. Prometheus, of course."

She ran her finger down a screen that was clearly blank. "Hmm… I'm sorry, his list appears to be completely full for the next nine decades. I can make you an appointment for the thirtieth of November in twenty-one fourteen if you like."

Just then, Thalia did something so stupid that it could helped us just as much as it could have had us killed… or at least thrown out of the building. "Unless you want me to get my father to find another rock with chains, I suggest that you let us see him."

Laurie's face suddenly turned green as she pressed a button on her intercom. I hoped it wasn't security, even though I hadn't seen any coming into the building. "Um, sir, we have three young demigods here to see you."

A moment of silence and then, after a sigh, "Send them in."

Laurie gulped and pointed back towards the elevator. "Sixty-third floor," and then she huddled next to her computer screen and began playing Space Invaders.

We trailed our way back to the elevators. After I pressed the button and we began waiting for the elevator to come to the bottom floor, I noticed patterns in the gold when looked at in a certain light. The patterns were exactly the same as the ones on the elevator on Mount Olympus. Interesting. There was a pleasant ding as the elevator doors parted and we entered. I pressed a button marked '63' and the doors closed. We began our ascent as Frank Sinatra sang about flying away from the speakers overhead. We stopped on the sixty-third floor. Ahead of us was a simple room, maybe five feet by ten. A single set of mahogany double doors awaited us opposite of the elevators. "Well, let's go," said Thalia, already heading forward.

She opened the door.

The ceiling went up to what I guessed was at least twenty-five or thirty feet. White marble columns extended up to match the height of the ceiling. The floor was made up of black granite, with colors making up some sort of mosaic on that I couldn't exactly see. To the right of the room, various marble busts and statues of Prometheus lined the walls, each with a golden plaque inscribed with the name of the artists responsible for making them as well as the year that they were created. On the left side of the room, full bookcases lined the wall, with a fireplace in the middle with a comfortable looking reclining chair placed a few feet in front, a small table next to it.

At the head of the room was a wide desk with few decorations on it. On an expensive looking chair, right behind the desk, sat a large man, seven feet tall at least, with short black hair and several large white scars crossing his face. He wore a dark blue pinstripe suit. His large hands seemed to flex in and out of either being a fist or being unclenched. I guess what Thalia had said just a few minutes ago got to him. "Son of the sea god," he said, ignoring Thalia. "What brings you here at this hour?"

I hadn't had anything prepared, so I just said the first thing I could think of. "With all due respect, I'm just going to get straight to the point –we need Pandora's jar."

Prometheus snorted. "Any you think I'm just going to _give _it to you?"

"Well… kind of?"

"Even if I had it, there's no way I would give it to you."

"Wait. You're saying you don't have it?"

"No, I don't. It went missing some time ago. Well, stolen would be more accurate."

"Stolen by who?"

"Don't know. It was stolen about twenty years ago."

"Twenty years? So anyone could have opened it and essentially doom the human race?"

"I don't know what the thief did with it. Clearly he hasn't opened it yet, but it's only matter of time before others start looking for it. Besides, it can only be opened with I key, which I have in my possession."

"If we could find it for you," I said slowly, this time trying to watch what I say, "could you make some sort of pact with Camp Half-Blood?"

His eyes narrowed slightly. "What kind of pact?"

"You will swear on the River Styx to never hand the jar and key to enemies of the gods. You'll remain neutral and keep both with you at all times. You'll probably never hear from any of us ever again."

The muscles in his face relaxed slightly. "I must confess, I do have a bit of a soft spot for demigods, even the likes of her." He nodded in Thalia's direction. "I did, after all, have a hand in creating humans, which in turn lead to demigods… Very well. I will abide by your terms. I swear it on the River Styx." I heard thunder outside. There wasn't supposed to be any rain in New York for another few days.

"Do you have any leads that could help us?"

"It went missing in Boston. You should start there."

"How are we supposed to get there?"

"Any of you know how to drive?"

**AN 2: And there we have it. Different perspectives will be coming soon, but for the time being, Percy will remain the focus of the story. This is the hardest I've ever worked on a chapter, but I hope to keep it up. Keep those reviews coming, they help a lot. And as always, thanks for reading.**

**Percy Jackson is owned by Rick Riordan.**


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